The Path Of Redemption
by FruitPastilles
Summary: In a world infested by monsters called Fiends, great Clans arose to fight the threat. Hunters are routinely called to deal with the dangers posed by them, working under the orders of their Chieftain. The new Chief is young, and inexperienced, but when dark secrets come to light, his Clan and their allies must fight to keep the peace. (Arcobaleno/27)
1. Chapter 1

The Path Of Redemption

**Summary: **In a world infested by monsters called Fiends, great Clans arose to fight the threat. Hunters are routinely called to deal with the dangers posed by them, working under the orders of their Chieftain. The new Chief is young, and inexperienced, but with dark secrets come to life, his Clan and their allies must fight to keep the peace. (Arcobaleno/27)

* * *

Chapter One - The Right

"Are you sure you're ready, sweetheart?" Nana asked softly, reaching up to cup Tsuna's face, running her thumb over the jut of his prominent cheekbone and watching, with mixed dread and affection, as a grin of nervousness and excitement crossed his face.

"Of course I am!" Tsuna said cheerfully and then paused for a moment, smile faltering as he actually thought of what he was preparing to do. "Well, mostly. Besides, I'll have all the safety items, plus the Dome if something gets too close. I'll be safe."

"The Dome isn't foolproof," Nana murmured, wringing her hands together nervously. "I've heard the stories Tsu-kun. I-If you don't come back, I don't know what I'll do."

Tsuna's expression softened and he reached to take his mother's hand in his own, squeezing her fingers. "It's the Right, mother. Not an Advancement, not a Placement, not even a real Hunt. There's hardly anything bigger than an Infernal in the woods by the Compound. The biggest they've ever had was a Misfitt and that was over seven years ago. I'll be fine. Promise. They won't get through the Dome and even if they do, it isn't a solo hunt. I can blow a whistle at any time and the proctors will come running. I just have to keep moving."

"You'll be more than fine," Nana said, sounding fiercer than she felt. "You won't take _any_ risks and you'll be careful! If you come out with more than a scratch I'll…I'll lock you in your room!

Tsuna laughed at that, gladdened to watch as his mother's mouth quirked too, and he gently murmured, "I'm twenty one. Hardly young enough to be locked away like an unruly child."

"You're always going to be my baby boy, Tsu-kun. Nothing will change that, not age, not rank, not status."

"So even if by some stroke of luck I became Chieftain –" here, Tsuna wrinkled his nose at the word, "- you would still treat me the same?"

"Of course!" Nana said indignantly and squeaked as she was swept up into a heartfelt hug, Tsuna holding her tight and burying his face in her hair.

"Thank you," Tsuna whispered into her hair and then reluctantly pulled away as someone by the door cleared their throat. Tsuna straightened his spine and turned to face the person in the doorway.

"It's time," Coyote murmured solemnly, face as serious as his voice and he inclined his head to Nana in greeting, to which she straightened her spine and brushed her hair from her face, blinking back tears, looking every inch the strong, proud mother she was.

"Knock them dead, Tsu-kun."

Tsuna gave a tight smile and walked to Coyote's side, following the stoic man to the preparation chamber.

"We will leave you for two hours. Here, you will eat and prepare yourself." Coyote stopped by the door, pulling a key from his pocket to twist in the lock, pushing the heavy wood inwards to allow Tsuna in.

Tsuna took in a deep breath and entered the room, the floors lined with tatami mats, a low table in the centre of the room with a small bowl of rice and a plate of steamed vegetables on it, a pillow set in front. There was also a teapot and corresponding mug, whereas across the room there was a special mat, where the meditation would take place.

The door clunked shut behind him and the tumblers fell into place, locking him in for the next two hours and, quietly, Tsuna knelt by the table, wondering if his nerves would settle enough for him to eat.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable shuffling, Tsuna was forcing himself to eat, knowing well enough that if he didn't now, he wouldn't have time before he left. Having to blow his horn out of feeling faint or exhaustion would be embarrassing.

It took him nearly twenty minutes and, by the end, the rice was cold and stodgy, but the lump of nervousness in his stomach had been softened by the tea and the bland vegetables reminded him of when he was younger and still in training.

Then, murmuring a soft thanks, he crossed the room, sat cross legged on the specialised mat, closed his eyes and began to breathe, curling his fingers greedily as if trying to grab onto the calm that started to flood his veins.

* * *

Tsuna gently flinched as someone knocked on the door three times in succession and then swung it open, Coyote stood there, face still solemn and Tsuna simply nodded without waiting for the question to be asked.

Slowly, his body lax and heavy, he rose to his feet and walked to Coyote's side, following the man without being prompted, comfortable in the silence that surrounded them.

Coyote was a man of few words, and Tsuna wasn't sure he wanted to break the quiet in case it broke his concentration as well, and he simply stared at Coyote's shoulder as he followed the older man, the calm still making his body lax.

The next room they entered required an electronic code and opened into the armoury, a room split almost evenly in half. One side was primarily aged, bladed weapons, an assortment of knives, swords and spears. The other side, Tsuna's right, included ranged weaponry. Pistols, bows, crossbows. Nothing larger – it didn't matter how large the weapon was, if it didn't match its Master, it wouldn't damage a Fiend, let alone kill it. Larger weapons allowed for larger collateral.

With a Hunter's aim being to keep the populace safe, inadvertently killing seven people for the sake of saving two or three wasn't the way to go.

"You are free to choose your weapons. The limit set upon you is three. You may not use a weapon of higher class then Decimo. No class weaponry and Decimo weaponry is free for your perusal," Coyote intoned, the speech sounded rehearsed and Tsuna didn't doubt it was spoken to others attempting the Right.

Tsuna nodded in understanding, ushered into the room and hearing the door clunk shut behind them, letting out a pitched whine as it relocked. Across the far side of the Armoury was a door that led to the Ready Room and from there, Tsuna would bed led to the Woods of Atonement, where the Right was committed and where Tsuna would take his first step to becoming a Hunter of great renown.

At least, that was what he hoped.

Dread slowly began to pool in his stomach as he stared around the room, mutely hearing Coyote's murmured, "You have thirty minutes for your decision." And, hesitantly, Tsuna crossed the room to peer at the blades.

This part was the step that worried him. Should he take the weapons knowing he wouldn't need them? How would he go about saying 'I don't need any weapons'? That was if they took him seriously and allowed him to continue the Right, and didn't take him as someone negligent of his own health.

In the end, he chose a small dagger that slipped into his belt sheathe, and holstered a 9mm. Glock, after carefully checking the clip. Then, he made a show of hunting about the room and was quite pleasantly surprised that, after Coyote intoned – "Three minutes left." – he found a pair of aged, leather gloves, covered in weathered cracks and old brown stains of left over blood.

Reverently, he slipped the gloves on, ignoring Coyote's soft huff of surprise, and flexed his fingers in the confines they gave him. The dread was washed away and Tsuna relaxed, nodding to Coyote to signal he was prepared.

The Ready Room already held people, and this was where Tsuna was handed both the whistle he would use for assistance, and the horn he would use to sound to signal his surrender, defeat, or fear of death. These were clipped to his belt, tucked carefully beside the knife and gun.

Then, he was given the Dome. It was a chrome sphere that, when twisted, would erupt in a barrier around the person who used it. The Dome had been passed down for generations, used since the beginning of the Practice of Hunting, and was said to be a mix of technology and long forgotten magic.

The Dome was tucked into a backpack that Coyote gestured him to and, alongside the Dome went a First Aid kit, several knives that weren't designed for Hunting, and instead for such reason as whittling or skinning, and a tinderbox. Also included was a waterproof cloak and a cylinder package that was tied to the top of the backpack Tsuna identified as a tent. Along with the basic survival kit, he was given two bottles of water, both of two litres in weight, and a pack of dehydrated food, interspersed with simple to eat energy bars, simple cutlery and plastic plates.

It seemed a little excessive, given that the Right only lasted a maximum of six hours, that Tsuna wouldn't even be out in the true Wilds of what the world could offer, but he knew, just as any other, that this was part of the test. Being able to carry the weight of the pack was just a factor he would be tested against. If he couldn't carry a basic pack for six hours, he wouldn't be able to survive a mid to long range Hunt. That was how the Right worked.

"Tsuna." A warm voice interrupted his musings as he strapped the bag in place, and Tsuna glanced up to meet the soft eyes of the clan's Chieftain, Timoteo as the old man approached him.

"Revered Chief," Tsuna greeted, dropping to a single knee and bowing his head. "It is an honour."

"Come now Tsuna, none of that. We can leave the formalities for now," Timoteo laid a hand on Tsuna's shoulder, keeping it there even as the brunet rose to his feet again, glancing up at Timoteo with a quiet, nervous smile.

"As you might imagine, I am a little anxious," Tsuna admitted. "I've only ever been in the simulations and now that my Right is upon me…"

"If you are not ready, there is no shame in postponing, Tsuna. We can – "

"No. No. I'm ready, Chief Timoteo." Tsuna flushed at his interruption but was rewarded with a soft smile, Timoteo's hand on his shoulder squeezing faintly.

"That is good to hear. We always have need for Hunters in these troubled times. The moon will reach its peak in a short time and the Fiends will be at their most active soon. However, there are two gentlemen I would like you to meet. If you may." Timoteo gestured with his free hand to the door that opened to the testing grounds, which themselves opened into the woods.

Tsuna nodded, adjusted the straps of his backpack for a few moments and then, when indicated, left by the door. The great lamps of the testing grounds were lit, people milling around in the bright, artificial light. The proctor was settled on the observation deck and Tsuna could hear the soft murmurs as he spoke into the microphone to test the system.

The Right and any other Advancement or Placement test was a large undertaking. It took a special breed, as Iemitsu had liked to joke, to become a Hunter, latent abilities aside. That right mix of brave and insane to face down a monster borne of nightmares and horror with nothing more than a handful of weapons and a conviction of one's ability that was that much greater than fear.

As such, many had gathered in order to await the outcomes of Tsuna's Right of Maturity, and the nerves began to bundle in his stomach.

"These guests of ours, the ones I want you to meet, are here by my askance, Tsuna. I thought it would be good of them to be here when they could have refused."

The churning in his stomach worsened and Tsuna swallowed the taste of bile. If the Chieftain had called for them, they must be of importance if they could refuse the callings of a clan as well known as the Vongola.

Timoteo led him across the testing grounds, parting the groups of people with his mere presence, some of them offering the standard words of support and prayer for Tsuna's safety.

"I would like to introduce you to Reborn, of the Arcobaleno Faction, and Skull, of the Arcobaleno Faction," Timoteo murmured to Tsuna, inclining his head to the men before them and Tsuna felt his mouth and throat go dry as he immediately recognised and realised who exactly he was facing.

Both of them cut tall, imposing figures, almost radiating power and Tsuna could only offer a muttered greeting.

The shorter one, Skull, barked a soft laugh and rolled his eyes.

"Come on. We aren't exactly that intimidating, huh?" He tugged at the piercing on his lip and offered a tight grin. And, inexplicably, Tsuna had the feeling that he was being quietly mocked. The soft snort that Reborn, the darker one gave, eyes scanning the grounds and ignoring Tsuna solidified this.

"I'll try and remember that," Tsuna offered in quiet reply, "Should I ever meet you again. I would like to thank you for this opportunity and hope not to disappoint." His voice was very nearly sardonic, not quite sarcastic enough to be rude but subtle enough that those it was aimed for would have to think twice.

Timoteo was laughing behind his hand, and Reborn had turned to glance at Tsuna from the corner of his black eyes, appraising him with a blank stare that made the hair on the back of Tsuna's neck rise.

"I should rather like to thank you as well, for choosing to bear witness for this Right." Timoteo inclined his head and both Skull and Reborn ducked into a deeper bow than the Chieftain before the two of them returned to looking across the grounds.

"Come, Tsuna. The Right will be beginning shortly. You need to be in position."

"I understand." Tsuna glanced once more at the two Arcobaleno and followed Timoteo towards the starting point of the Right, a small, weathered brick road that led into the depths of the forest.

"If you don't find my asking impudent, may I inquire as to why the two Arcobaleno are present here?" Tsuna asked, almost stumbling in his attempt to keep formal in the face of witnesses.

"No reason at all, other than my own," Timoteo replied, sounded almost cryptic and amused. "Do not worry, Tsuna. They are not here to judge you or any other. If anything, they will offer comfort to the others who are to stay and watch that should you be in danger, the Code dictates they come to your aid."

"And will they come to my aid?" Tsuna asked, scuffing his toe against the cobblestones of the Path of Beginnings and honestly, why did everything have such strange names?

"Tsuna, my dear boy. That is up to you to decide." Timoteo clapped him twice on the shoulder, and gave him a digital watch, strapping it around the protesting young man's wrist, ignoring Tsuna's insistence he could put the watch on himself.

"In less than ten minutes, the bell will signal. I must leave you now, and wish you the best of luck. It would be a great honour to welcome you from the forest as a Hunter."

"Thank you, Revered Chieftain." Tsuna dropped once more to his knee in respect, feeling an unnamed emotion make his eyes start to burn.

Timoteo smiled gently and stepped away, making his way to the observation deck.

No more than seven minutes later, the great bell rang, the watch on Tsuna's wrist began to count down, and Tsuna marched determinedly into the Woods of Atonement, head held high and heart in his throat.

* * *

It had been half an hour since the boy had disappeared into the Woods, small and frail and barely a presence to him. Reborn was very certain that at any point in time now, the horn would be blown and the boy, barely a man, would surrender his Right of Maturity and admit defeat.

Perhaps, just maybe, he would get as far as blowing his whistle instead, to call for assistance and help against the Fiend he had found, so the Primary Judge could assess his ability in Hunting and Battle upon arrival. It was unlikely he'd get that far though, in Reborn's opinion. If the whistle was blown, that would mean the boy had found something and would need help and in doing so, that meant a chance of Passing. Reborn highly doubted the trembling boy who had walked into the Woods could break a twig, let along stand against a Fiend long enough for help to arrive without being killed or passing out.

As if in passing thought, he was reminded of Giotto, the first Chieftain, the first to choose to gather Hunters in a clan, and indeed the first Hunter to ever have completed a Right of Maturity without any assistance at all.

Huddled next to him was Skull, who was tapping a foot almost impatiently as he rubbed his arms. The night had become chilly, cloudless and dark with the moon hanging low and full in the sky.

After a moment, Skull chose to mutter under his breath, petulant and almost whining, "Why do we have to spectate for this stupid little brat anyway."

Without pulling his eyes from the woods in front of him, Reborn chose to discretely dig a knuckle into Skull's ribs and made the other man softly yelp.

"It was as the Ninth asked. Or did you want to disrespect the Revered Chieftain and his clan?" For a moment then, Reborn _did_ turn his head, just briefly and Skull shrank under the force of Reborn's expression.

Another thirty minutes later trickled into a further hour and so, two hours after the boy had been sent into the woods, Reborn was past impatient, cold, and resigned. When the morning sun came at the break of dawn, he would join the others in finding the body, no doubt about it.

With a quiet sigh, he lifted his hand to signal the end to the proctor, so the test could officially come to a close. It was tradition that every candidate have six hours but, if no whistle or horn had been sounded in the first two, the candidate was presumed dead. The funeral proceedings would begin approximately twenty four hours later.

There was a rustle from the forest that caught his attention and he whirled back around the face the tall trees, cursing his relaxed state even as his fingers closed around the handle of his gun, grip worn and familiar under his hand.

Watching closely for any signs of movement – Fiends weren't unknown to leave the forest, and a lot of the present clan members were by no means battle ready or even Hunters and so were at risk – Reborn couldn't stop his lower jaw from falling slightly slack at what he _did_ see.

The timid little boy that had been sent in – _Tsunayoshi_ his mind whispered – was stood at the edge of the Woods of Atonement, right on the edge of the Path.

The brunet's mouth was twisted in a grim, accepting smile, even as he cradled the head of something grotesque to his head. From head to toe he was almost completely covered in a dark, brackish blood and the only sign of any sustained injury was a crimson spot of blood at his temple, a trickle of bright red near his eye.

He caught sight of Reborn's expression and something close to mirth danced in his eyes, along with a flicker of orange Reborn was certain he hadn't imagined.

The proctor, having seen him emerge, blew the celebratory horn and called out the words that would signal the end of the Right of Maturity, voice calling out loud and clear over the speakers.

"_Tsunayoshi Sawada, son of Iemitsu Sawada and Nana Sawada nee Hikaru, has completed his Right of Maturity! His test time is two hours and seven minutes. He-He has managed to complete his Right without any assistance. T-This hasn't happened since our Founder himself, the Great Chieftain Giotto!"_

Without being prompted, Tsuna tangled his bloody fingers in the straggly hair of the beast he had killed, lifting the disembodied head high above him, chest heaving in exertion as he grinned wildly at the cheers that rang out around the testing grounds.

Reborn found he couldn't stop staring as Tsuna lifted his free hand to swipe blood away from the lower half of his face, triumphant expressions still in place and Skull, still stood next to him and almost speechless, whispered in a voice filled with awe, "Fucking hell."

Reborn silently agreed.

* * *

The bustling sounds of the testing grounds faded eerily behind him only two steps along the Path of Beginnings. After only twelve steps, by Tsuna's count, he could no longer see the lights of the grounds behind him and the Path had already ended.

Taking in a deep breath, he stepped off the cobblestones and into the woods themselves, and noise exploded around him once again. Muted calls from bird animals, the rustle of animals in the trees, the wind catching the leaves.

The fear he had felt before stepping in had melted away and he felt incredibly relaxed. The woods were dark, what looked like black smoke winding around the trunks of the trees. Tsuna easily recognised the miasma left behind by Fiends. While some found it choking, it parted with no effort on his side as he walked through the woods.

Tugging his gloves on a little tighter, Tsuna adjusted his bag and then picked a direction and aimlessly walked. He knew not to go too far. Whereas the Woods of Atonement didn't tend to hold any dangerous Fiends, it would become thicker with miasma and more difficult closer to the centre of the woods.

While a Misfitt had only been seen once in the last seven years didn't mean they didn't live in the woods, and underestimating what may or may not be present was one of the leading causes of a failed Hunt.

After around thirty minutes of walking, Tsuna chose to sit down and wait. A Fiend would only be found when it wanted to be. More often than not, in order to cause mischief, dismay and death they would let themselves be seen and then, upon being noticed, they would attack in a twisted version of their own Hunt. Some of them stayed hidden until the critical moment, and then would slip from the darkness to hack and slash. Some Fiends in particular liked to go for the Achilles tendon and take their time while the victim suffered.

Tsuna pulled out a bottle of water and had a sip from it and then chose to munch on one of the six energy bars included in his food pack, the rest of it obviously dehydrated. He had almost finished eating when something small and looking almost entirely constructed of miasma scuttled out from the darkness at the edge of his vision and peered up at him with dozens of eyes, like a mouse with the face of a spider.

Tsuna offered it the remainder of his food and it settled two feet from his left to chew on it thoughtfully, its eyes – a rather unnerving shade of violet – never leaving Tsuna's face.

"**You are looking for a Dread Creature." **

Tsuna took another sip of water and, after pulling out a small bowl included in his kit, poured a drink from the little beast, which cupped its smoky hands in the water for a few sips from its palms here and there.

"I am," Tsuna agreed quietly. It was always a little unnerving, hearing the voice of a Fiend. However, he was the only one he knew of with the ability and he didn't find it prudent to warn anyone else. Alone in the Woods, and with the knowledge most Hunts were solo, his secret would be taken to his grave.

"**I hope I am not the one you seek."**

"So long as you are no danger to myself and mine, there is no reason for me to have quarrel with you."

The Fiend made a curious noise, between a cough and a laugh, all its strange vocal cords could make.

"**These woods are the safest place for one such as myself. If you hunt for bigger game, I could lead you. Equal exchange. As you have helped me, I will help you."**

"Equal?" Tsuna laughed softly.

"**As you have assisted me, I will assist you. If this is what you truly need, as I have truly needed, I will help."**

Tsuna rubbed his jaw in thought, the leather almost rough against his skin and then he nodded, waiting patiently for the Fiend to finish drinking before he tucked his things away in the backpack.

"If you could lead me to something worth the Hunt, I would be grateful."

"**A human with manners. To live to see the day where my kind could approach and not be slain on the spot."**

"I could say the same," Tsuna responded quietly as he stood and the Fiend bounded ahead of him without another word, almost disappearing into the woods if it weren't for the tip of its tail lighting as bright as its eyes had.

Twenty minutes of following and the miasma abruptly thickened around them to a point that it no longer passed around Tsuna and instead made him squint through the fog and cough quietly at the ashen taste it caused on his tongue.

"**Ahead you will find a Dread Creature worthy of your time, mortal one. The exchange is complete."**

Tsuna coughed again, this time into fist, and muttered a croaky thanks, swiping his free hand in front of his face to try and part the miasma.

The Fiend simply blinked at him, one or two eyes at a time and disappeared into the miasma, the afterglow of its eyes present long after it was gone.

A few more steps into the miasma and the sounds of the forest faded away to obscurity and Tsuna felt his hackles rise, a clammy sweat breaking out on his skin.

It was only by luck he ducked to the left and not the right as a roar sounded right beside him and a tail slammed into the ground where he had been standing.

"_**Leave! Leave now or death be unto you, you filthy worm!"**_

Tsuna grit his teeth and unsheathed his knife, darting under the tail and digging the dagger into the first solid mass it met, warm blood pouring down over his hand, followed by a high pitched shrieking of pain.

The Fiend wrenched away and disappeared into the dark, taking Tsuna's knife with him and leaving him to quickly tug his gloves down tighter as he readied himself for what would probably be one of the most dangerous points in his life.

The head came bearing down on him from the left in his peripheral vision, a great gaping maw of teeth and a forked tongue. Tsuna danced around, grabbing onto a protruding horn from the side of the head and holding on as he twisted his body until he was astride the thing's neck.

Without preamble, he fumbled around the face of the bucking, thrashing creature and found the eyes under a layer of hair to where he dug in his thumbs with no preamble until they gave way with a sickening pop and the feeling of something goopy and sticky pouring over his hands.

As the Fiend started throwing its weight around again, Tsuna grabbed onto its protrusions again and was surprised when both snapped off – a safety mechanism, he guessed wildly – and he was tossed to the floor violently, the creature screaming again.

However, this left the horns in Tsuna's hands, and, after a little fumbling, Tsuna found out they were sharply tipped. And then a scaled paw slammed into the side of his head, sending him tumbling to the floor and a little dizzy, and winded. The same paw, apparently equipped with fingers, curled around his torso and lifted him from the floor by just under a foot, tight around his ribs, claws poking at his skin through the jacket he was wearing.

The rancid breath of the Fiend washed into his face along with waves of miasma, and Tsuna squinted in the dark, hands still gripping the horns. He slammed one into what he guessed was the side of the Fiend's face and was dropped – only his hold on the horn, dangerously slippery with blood kept him up until he managed to twist his hand into the things scraggly fur. Then, probing about with his foot, he found where one front shoulder joint rested and, while the thing clawed at both him and its face, he scrambled forward onto the things back.

Then, bracing on his hands very briefly, he brought his foot back, took in a steadying breath, and slammed it mercilessly strong into the shoulder of the thing, hearing it slip free and snap with a sickening pop.

The Fiend lost its balance and slammed down onto its front with an outraged screech.

What was different about Tsuna from the majority of Hunters, what made him reluctant to choose a weapon, was that his offensive mastery was a rarity.

His hand to hand combat was unparalleled to any other person he had come across and so, despite his wiry, lean little frame, he knew how to throw his weight and how to fight a losing fight. A knife or blade was helpful, but it made him unbalanced. Against larger Fiends he might be outmatched, but this Fiend would likely be the largest he'd ever see outside the Right in a solitary Hunt.

And where most people accepted into Hunting had latent magic that mostly focussed on regeneration – how else would the Dome work for them? – Tsuna had come into luck, and not only did he heal, as any other Hunter would heal from most minor wounds, he had strength no other could match. This part, however, wasn't well known.

Tsuna chose to utilise this and, while the Fiend was down, struggling to get back to a balanced position, Tsuna darted in close, ignored the snap of the head until he was safely behind the jaw, pressed into the broken shoulder. With another deep breath, Tsuna proceeded to lock his arms around the wiry neck of the Fiend, and give an unsophisticated, mighty yank.

The crack and looseness of the body made him sigh in relief as he trembled in fear and adrenalin. Had it been any bigger than it was – squinting through the dark, it seemed the size of a horse - his arms would not have found purchase around the neck and he most certainly would have failed in that approach, with his life as forfeit. Tsuna slumped against the corpse and, against his better judgement, kissed his gloved knuckles in thanks of what he had been gifted with.

The blood on the gloves tasted disgusting but Tsuna couldn't bring himself to care. Eyeing up the creature, he guessed that it was about six foot long and, from the kink in its spine, regularly shifted from standing on four feet to two, compensating its tail in the shift. When it had caught Tsuna, it had been halfway balanced, no doubt not wanting to waste time for a full change. Breaking its supporting shoulder had sent it down until it could shift to its two footed form, the only fact that probably had saved Tsuna's life.

Then, he started shaking and crying because he'd managed to _kill_ his first Fiend. He couldn't identify it until he returned the evidence of a completed Hunt, but the adrenalin was wearing off, the shock was sinking in deeper and stronger and he still had to remove the head.

He crawled along the body until he reached where the knife was still buried, removed the weapon and half crawled half stumbled back to the head. He made a preliminary cut, one that followed the circumference of the creatures neck and was deep enough at most points to meet the spine. Then, replacing the knife with blood as far as his elbows, Tsuna steeled himself, dug his gloved fingers into the incision he had made and, bracing a foot on the steadier shoulder of the corpse, yanked back as far as he could.

The head came flying free with a new spray of dark, almost black blood, enough for Tsuna to spit it from his mouth and to quickly back away, not even ashamed as he dropped to his backside from the sudden retreat. The decapitated body slumped down, gravity pulling it further and slowly, it began to dissolve, flecks of miasma floating from its body.

Tsuna, still sat down, just curled over his hard won prize and trembled.

* * *

"I know you must be itching to clean yourself up Tsuna, but the Right will end soon," Timoteo said soothingly, even as he took not the seat next to Tsuna, but two away, in order to avoid the blood drenched young man.

"Though, I would like to ask…how did you manage to get so thoroughly…covered?" Timoteo peered at him curiously, but with knowing eyes.

Tsuna shuffled, grimacing at the stiffness of his clothes and the stickiness of bloody skin.

"I, uh…I tore its head off."

Timoteo's eyebrows shot up and Tsuna shuffled again, glancing away only to meet Reborn's passive stare and then he gave up, just staring at the table instead.

"I have a second latent ability. M-My instructor thought it was secondary and that the regeneration would become the main ability, but, uh, the second one ended up staying at equal power."

"What ability is it?" Reborn asked, voice sharp and intense. He wasn't accusatory, in fact there was barely any emotion to his words, just a clinical detachment.

Tsuna swallowed nervously, rummaged in his backpack – which was on the floor by his chair – and pulled out a knife.

"That would, uh, be strength." And then he snapped the blade in half, not from the handle, but along the metal.

"_Fascinating."_ Timoteo didn't seem to realise he had whispered it, but Tsuna shifted in his seat and blushed, ducking his head to stare at the two pieces of what was once a sturdy knife in front of him before he set them delicately on the table.

"Two latent abilities aren't rare as you know, but to have the second one become prevalent or equal…well, only a small number of Hunters can boast that, our friends the Arcobaleno included."

Tsuna lifted his head at that, to glance at Reborn and Skull, the first who simply stared and the latter who just grunted in agreement.

Timoteo seemed to want to say something else, but then there was a knock at the door and the Primary Judge walked into the room, smiling softly and warmly at Tsuna. He had a clipboard, eyes roving over the words and he quietly murmured, "Let me be the first to offer my congratulations, Sawada-san. Your first Hunt has been Judged successful. The Fiend you Hunted was a Dusk-kin, of class Ottavo."

Tsuna let out a huge breath of release and slumped into his seat, pressing his face to his hands and not even flinching at the blood, feeling relief more than anything, before the Judge's words registered and he asked, voice croaky, "O-Ottavo?"

Considering a Misfitt was class Settimo, he had been closer to death than he realised. Even though they were considered child's play for seasoned Hunter, for himself to have killed a class Ottavo and come out with no more than a mild concussion and looking as if he'd bathed in blood….

"Perhaps you entered the woods a little deeper than you should have, but I will not lie that your results were more than satisfactory." The Judge inclined his head to Timoteo. "Revered Chieftain. I leave the final decision to your capable hands."

"Well, I think the verdict is simple." Timoteo smiled brightly and folded his hands in front of him in the table. "Tsuna, as Chieftain of the Vongola Clan, I hereby welcome you into the ranks of the Hunters, and wish the best in your Hunting."

As he waited for a response, it was with quiet realisation that Timoteo realised Tsuna had silently fallen asleep, face still hidden in hands and still slumped back in his chair.

Laughing softly, Timoteo dismissed the Primary Judge and the proctor and regarded Tsuna fondly.

The newest Hunter to the Clan had earned his rest.

* * *

**Fiends Mentioned:**

**Infernal**:  
Class: Decimo  
Appearance: Unknown  
Temperance: Unknown  
Risk: Low, to none.

**Misfitt:  
**Class: Settimo  
Appearance: Unknown  
Temperance: Unknown  
Risk: Approach with great caution

**Dusk-kin  
**Class: Ottavo  
Appearance: A Dusk-Kin will vary in size of length from between five foot and six foot, and a standing height of between six foot and eight foot. It is unknown where the extra height comes from. It boasts a powerful tail, double jointed limbs – _addendum: the point at which joints meet are weak_ – and a strong jaw with two rows of teeth. Has two sets of horns – _addendum: these can detach at will of Fiend _– which are harder than bone and sharply pointed. It has one set of eyes – _addendum: easily damaged – _and has greatly improved sight. Despite these common features, each Dusk-kin will differ between each other. Some are scaled, some have fur, some have neither.  
Temperance: Hates intruders upon its territories. Will attack even outside of territory. Has no regard for life and will approach suddenly and without warning with no provocation.  
Risk: Approach with great caution

* * *

So….I started a new story. And I'm not sorry. Whoops.

It might sound confusing, with all these terms thrown about, but some Hunting Lore will be explained here and there, and if you have any pressing questions, just let me know!

Also, unsurprisingly, this is going to be an Arcobaleno/27. The hints will probably range from super mild to what the hey, but whatever. It's a guilty pleasure.

**It's a bit up in the air at the moment, but I might need a Beta for this one. If you're interested, drop me a PM and we can discuss! **


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two – A Faltering Step

"You will _never_ be so reckless again, you hear me Tsuna?"

Tsuna shuffled, face sheepish as Nana scolded him, her cheeks red and her eyes wet with tears.

"I was in that crowd. I saw you come out, covered in blood like nobody's business. And then I come here to find out you have a _concussion_ after facing an _Ottavo!_ Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

Tsuna shifted again, holding the bed covers tightly in his hands, crinkling the crisp sheets before Nana reached to settle a hand over his.

"Mother…" Tsuna said quietly, feeling suitably chagrined. "There was nothing I could do. I stumbled on the Kin's territory. It was faster than me."

"And what if it had been worse, Tsuna?" Nana's fingers tightened around her son's as she slowly sank to sit on the edge of the bed. "I almost lost your father, Iemitsu, already. I-If I lost you…"

"The doctors said my injury was mild, and I'm being let out today. It'll be fine. It was bad luck I found one of such high rank, but I'll never be sent on such a dangerous solo hunt, not until I've improved." Tsuna lifted his free hand to rest on Nana's, thumb stroking the back of her hand and he stared at the thin skin, the intricate web of veins and arteries. Then slowly, he bent over at the waist to press his forehead to their joined hands.

"I can't lose you, Tsuna." Nana whispered, resting her cheek against his head. "I can't stop you from being a Hunter since that's what you want, and I can't stop you from doing your job but…please. Be careful."

"I promise, mama. I'll be as safe as I can. Besides, the proctors and examiners followed my route. I wasn't in far enough to encounter a Kin and, as I have heard, the Revered Chieftain is having a meeting with the other Clans and Factions in order to determine whether or not this could be a Calling. And if it is, that means I won't be sent on Hunts anyway."

"Or there might be a higher demand for Hunters." Both Nana and Tsuna sat upright at the new interruption to Tsuna's small medical room, the two of them turning slightly to face the doorway, though Nana made sure not to let go of her son's hand.

Iemitsu stood there, hands folded behind his back and his usually cheery visage was grim, though a tight smile broke free at seeing his family.

"The Revered Chieftain is calling all able Hunters now to the Hall of Decisions. This includes you, Tsuna."

"B-But he's still recovering," Nana whispered, making a move to stand. "How can he be expected to be part of the – "

"Nana," Iemitsu said firmly, shifting his weight to his better leg, the other injured in the incident that almost took his life. He tightened his jaw and forced himself to stand taller despite the distraught look on his wife's face.

"There is little to be done, as it is the Revered Chieftain who calls. Besides, it's only a meeting. The Hall of Decisions doesn't extend to Hunting contracts, it's just a discussion." He walked into the room and set a gentle hand on Nana's shoulder, letting her lean into his side softly.

"I will be with Tsuna all throughout the meeting and I will bring him back here myself. I won't let him strain himself or his injury."

"Give me a moment to change into something more suitable." Tsuna murmured, making a move to stand and accepting the helping hand his father offered in order to get to his feet, head swimming briefly and stomach churning with nausea.

"There's no time, unfortunately. The Revered Chieftain was clear in his words, we cannot wait any longer. Here." Iemitsu made sure that Tsuna was steady enough before removing his cloak and sweeping it around Tsuna's shoulders, the young man only dressed in flimsy hospital wear.

"A-Are you sure?"

"In times like these, you will not be begrudged for being inappropriately dressed, Tsuna. There are more pressing matters to attend to."

Tsuna nodded, giving his tearful mother a tight hug and whispering promises of safe return in her hair before she gave him a gentle, supportive push towards his father by the doorway.

Iemitsu's expression was darker than the fall of night, and Tsuna felt the nausea once again rear its head.

* * *

Tsuna sat slowly down into the plastic chair beside his father, taking in the Hall with a reserved sense of detachment. Those around him had briefly turned to regale him and offer congratulations regarding his Right, but very quickly had returned to facing the front of the hall and the pedestal a few metres away.

"There are more people here than our own Clan, surely?" Tsuna asked his father quietly, folding shaking hands on his lap. His head was pounding fiercely against his temple above his eye where he had been struck by the Dusk-kin and he hadn't managed to take any painkillers before leaving the hospital wing.

"There are several representatives present from other Clans and Factions. From what I have heard, both the Millefiore and Simon Clans have been called for this meeting, as well as the Bovino and Giglio Nero Clans. The Arcobaleno and Vindice Factions have also sent representatives. The Varia Faction declined, and CEDEF has yet to be heard from."

"Most of the major Clans and the two largest Factions." Tsuna mused with a tired sigh. "I've only passed my Right recently, are you sure I'm to be present here?"

"Normally, no. However, the Revered Chieftain called for you himself and I have yet to deny his wishes. Just sit quietly and it should be over soon. I doubt you will be required to remember any of this. As you said, you've only just completed your Right."

The room fell into a sudden hush as Timoteo advanced from a side room towards the pedestal, taking the small set of stairs so he would be higher and visible from the rest of the room. Following him and taking seats at the fore of the room were a handful of men and a single woman, facing the Hall with stern expressions.

Tsuna was surprised to see that several of those that took the seats were young, perhaps closer to his age than any Chieftains and Leaders he had seen before.

"My fellow Hunters," Timoteo began, voice stern and commanding. "I have some dire news that, after discussion, was found to be too important to keep. Last night a Right of Maturity was held in our own Woods of Atonement, with the recruit completing his task upon a successful Hunt of a Dusk-kin, Class Ottavo."

There was scattered murmuring across the room and Timoteo waited for quiet to fall before he continued.

"I agree with most of you here that this is indeed an impressive feat. However, it is less cause for celebration and more a cause for concern. The Ottavo had migrated northerly by over two miles in order to create its new territory and, in doing so, we discovered that the two outer barriers have been taken down by an outside force. Miasma has been found spreading from the centre of the Woods and the Fiends are becoming more active. Having spoken with your Chieftains, and your representative Leaders, this is not an isolated occurrence."

Timoteo cast his gaze around the room and caught Tsuna's eye, causing the brunet to sit further upright. The Revered Chieftain did not break eye contact as he continued.

"We have come to an agreement that we have missed the warning signs and are already in the midst of a Class Quinto Calling and all efforts must begin now to bring it to an end."

The Hall erupted into chaos at the proclamation and Tsuna sunk down slowly, finally breaking his intense staring with Timoteo to blearily blink at his hands, of which were faintly trembling.

The last Calling he could remember was when he was twelve, and had barely fallen in the Settimo range, more of a high Ottavo than anything. Before Hunters could dispatch the Class Primo Fiend organising the event, two outlying Clans had been destroyed and a neighbouring town had been wiped from the map. The number of available Hunters had dropped a staggering sixty four percent, with numbers only just now having risen back to safe levels.

It was said that only a Class Secondo Calling was what had brought Fiends into the world in the first place, an extremely rare Fiend of Class Zero having broken down the walls between realms and Called them across in the first place.

"_Silence!"_ Timoteo's voice boomed across the Hall and, in twos and threes, the room fell quiet.

"Upon learning of this revelation, I spoke with my fellow Clan Chieftains and Faction Leaders, and we came to a final decision. The time has come that I can no longer be called Revered Chieftain. I have been deemed unfit to undertake such a gargantuan task of bringing order back to the world before this Calling Event brings an end to what we know. And so, with you all gathered, I will also be declaring my chosen replacement to become Revered Chieftain of the Vongola Clan."

Tsuna, still staring at his trembling fingers, barely registered as his stiff-backed father sat forward in interest, the older man's face twisted in brief outrage at hearing the Revered Chieftain had to effectively retire.

And then, Timoteo called out, voice clear and firm, "Tsunayoshi Sawada, son of Iemitsu Sawada and Nana Sawada nee Hikaru. By final decree, I hereby declare you as Revered Chieftain at such a time I can no longer perform my duties."

Tsuna froze, barely hearing Iemitsu's horror-stricken voice as his father whispered, _"No."_ before he was being called to the pedestal and, on numb legs, he stumbled to his feet and felt every eye in the Hall turn to him.

Shakily, like a newborn faun learning how to walk, he made his way towards the front of the Hall as prompted by Timoteo, feeling immediately underdressed in his hospital gown and too big cloak his father had swaddled him in.

"R-Revered Chieftain," Tsuna mumbled, when he had reached Timoteo's side. "H-Has there been some sort of mistake? Why a-am I here?"

"I am not a young man any longer, Tsuna, and I have ruled for far too long. In dire times, Hunters of any rank can be called forth to receive the title of Revered Chieftain and in this dire time, I have chosen you."

"I-I couldn't possibly…"

"Tsuna." Timoteo's voice was firm but gentle. Understanding. "I have seen a great many things in your future. This is only one step of the thousand you must take in order to become a respected man. But, if I did not believe that you could become the man that would lead this Clan to safer waters, I would not have chosen you."

Tsuna hesitated fiercely, pausing for a long moment as he turned his head briefly to regard the other Chieftains and Leaders, wondering if any of them would protest. The young woman was smiling supportively and, with a jolt, Tsuna realised that it was Reborn chosen for the Arcobaleno Faction Leader. And, even as he watched, the powerful man inclined his head in respect.

"I…"

"Many decisions I made I would come to regret, Tsunayoshi." Timoteo rest a hand on the inside of Tsuna's trembling arm. "This decision will not be one of them. Besides, I'm not expecting you to become Revered Chieftain immediately. Until the point you are deemed suitable, you won't have to make any decrees, or final choices. I will be with you for every step. Is there anything you would like to say?"

Tsuna blinked heavily a few times, feeling his head swim as he walked to the pedestal Timoteo gestured him to, the room silent and everyone facing him.

"I….that is…"

And then, unceremoniously, Tsuna ducked over and threw up.

* * *

"My apologies, Tsuna. I should have taken into consideration you were recovering from a concussion."

"N-No. It is not your fault, Revered Chieftain. You requested my presence and I came."

Tsuna had once again found himself in the predicament of being swaddled in a bed while surrounded by important figures. One by one, once he had regained consciousness – having passed out in the Hall of Decisions – Tsuna had been introduced to the other figures of importance that had been present.

He had once again been introduced to Reborn, who had deigned to shake his hand this time and actually face him instead of being ignorant and rude.

Then there had been Bermuda, a silent man of the Vindice Faction, who had simply nodded once and stepped back into place. Following Bermuda had been Yuni, the Chieftain of the Giglio Nero Clan and pseudo-sister of Reborn it had seemed. Or something like that.

He had then been introduced to the young man with red hair, Enma Kozato, who had given him a tired smile and a conspirator's whisper of, "Both of us dragged into this mess young, hmm?"

The young man he met wasn't actually the Chieftain of the Bovino Clan – who was bedridden by a miasmic disease – and was instead his son, Lambo, who looked as if he'd rather be anywhere but there and had greeted Tsuna with a grunt.

The last person who had greeted him – and quite exuberantly – had been Byakuran, Chieftain of the Millefiore Clan, and Tsuna was sure he was still faintly blushing of embarrassment regarding the kiss the white haired Chieftain had given to his knuckles.

"So, tell us, Tsuna-kun," Yuni asked indulgently while leaning forward, eyes wide with curiosity. "You really took down an Ottavo for your Right? That is quite something, hmm?"

"Oh, something indeed," Byakuran laughed almost unnervingly. "And all by yourself too! Why, if I didn't know any better, I'd call you the reincarnation of the Revered Giotto-sama himself. And with only a concussion to boot!"

"Sheer luck, I would call it," Bermuda said, voice quiet and deadpan. "And a dash of stupidity for not thinking to request help."

Byakuran started tittering until Yuni elbowed him in the ribs, leaning forward again to ask, "And how _did_ you get the concussion? Did you duck into a tree trying to escape? Or did it hit you into something? Though, you haven't any broken bones to say it had…."

Tsuna squirmed uncomfortably and then muttered, "It…The Dusk-kin smacked me across the head."

The room fell so quiet one could hear a pin drop. Then Bermuda turned to face him completely, and said in an icy voice, "It would be prudent for you not to lie. A direct hit from a Dusk-kin, Class Ottavo, is enough to remove a fully grown man's head from his shoulder, much less that of a small whelp like you."

"I was struck across the head," Tsuna reaffirmed despite the disbelieving and almost disgusted looks he was being levelled with.

"Now, now, before we drown Tsunayoshi in accusations, perhaps I can offer some truth to his words?" Timoteo broke in. "Tsuna, now that you are candidate to become Revered Chieftain, I can safely pass on the secret that my latent ability is that of recall and future glimpse. So, if you would allow me, I would let the others see that you are telling the truth. If so, you have nothing to fear from what they may see."

Tsuna, willing to do anything to make Lambo stop looking at him like he was Fiend gunk under his boot, agreed and winced at the renewed headache when Timoteo's fingers pressed to his temple and pulled forward what looked like white rectangle.

Like a fuzzy TV, colour began to bleed into the white until Tsuna could almost believe that it was in fact a true picture and not recall. Not even thirty seconds into what was being shown, Tsuna was able to relive seeing exactly what it was like being hit across the face by the monstrous Fiend from the night before.

The room had fallen silent again until Bermuda said, sounding almost petulant, "I retract my previous statement. My apologies for accusing you of such."

Tsuna just shrugged weakly not wanting to antagonise him any further and watched on as Timoteo chose to continue running the memory with a smug look on his kind old face, all the way up to the point that Tsuna tore the head completely free and sobbed like a little girl as he curled over it.

"I must admit, I was…doubtful of your claim of candidacy for Revered Chieftain," Yuni began, "but, at actually seeing what Chieftain Timoteo told us? Well…that is pretty damn impressive Tsunayoshi. Pretty damn impressive indeed."

"Well, if you ever feel like you don't want to be Chieftain, know that I'd be willing to have you along for the ride any time, Tsuna-chan," Byakuran declared, choosing to perch on the bed next to Tsuna. "I would have that in my Clan _any_ day of the year."

"As would I," Enma acquiesced in his quiet, refined voice, either oblivious of Byakuran's innuendos or just ignoring them.

"I-I'm honoured by your offers, but our family has been part of the Vongola Clan for many generations and I would like to keep it that way." Tsuna twisted his fingers in the bed covers, lifting his free hand to the side of his head where his temples gave another throb.

Timoteo abruptly stood and clapped his hands together. "Now that greetings have been given and we can all agree that Tsuna is a suitable candidate for Revered Chieftain, I believe we should now let him rest and focus on the more immediate threat we are facing. Tsuna can join the proceedings when he is in better health."

"Finally," Lambo suddenly declared, standing from the small chair he had been squashed into, leaving the room without another word, Bermuda close behind. Byakuran flounced after, blowing Tsuna a kiss as he left, whereas Yuni offered him another smile. Enma chose to duck his head respectfully and murmur, "I look forward to working with you, Tsunayoshi."

Then, the only three left in the room were Tsuna, Reborn, and Timoteo.

"I wish you a swift recovery Tsuna, and offer the sincerest of apologies for dragging you into such a hectic world so shortly after your Maturity. In fact, I do believe Nana-san just may find enough malice in her heart to hurt me for putting you on the front lines."

"O-Oh, no. It's really okay, Revered Chieftain. I-If it is for what I am needed, I will do anything for the good of the Clan."

"And that, my dear boy, is what I both hoped for and was afraid of. I will see you shortly. Rest well." Timoteo walked towards the door, Reborn close behind him. But, as the Revered Chieftain left, Reborn did not and instead chose to face Tsuna.

Tsuna sat upright as the piercing gaze met his and he was hard pressed not to look away.

"The title of Revered Chieftain comes with a lot of responsibilities. I'm certain I don't have to tell you that. With the revelation of a Calling a lot will be expected of you." Reborn lifted a hand to straighten his hat. "And so I hope you don't _disappoint."_

Tsuna felt a cold sweat break out on his neck as the Arcobaleno left the room with a small, almost sinister upturn of the corner of his mouth as he mimicked Tsuna's words from the night before at the testing grounds.

Reborn had barely even left the room before Iemitsu was bursting in, Nana bustling after him a little slower, looking shell-shocked and heartbroken all in one.

"You can refuse if you absolutely need to, Tsuna. It isn't concrete, you're just a candidate and nobody expects you to become Chieftain. Just…just tell the Revered Chieftain you can't. It'll be fine, he'll understand," Iemitsu didn't even offer a greeting as he dropped to his knees besides the bed.

Nana was still hovering in the doorway, face pale and hand hovering by her mouth as she stared across the room. If Tsuna didn't know any better he'd think she was just looking out the window. However, he knew his mother was staring at nothing in the way that most distressed people did when faced with a problem they couldn't take head on.

"If it is for the Clan, I need to do this, father. You may not have heard but it won't be immediately that I take up the mantle of Revered Chieftain. I need training and there is much I have to learn. I…I can't leave the Clan without a Chieftain should no other be chosen." Even as Tsuna spoke, the words tasted a little like ashes in his mouth and something in his heart broke as he heard Nana give a strangled sob.

"They will make you Chieftain, they will send you out and you will _die_ Tsuna. We're in the middle of the largest Calling that anyone can remember, barring the original one. You being chosen, it isn't an honour. They've made you a scapegoat so when everything goes wrong they can blame it on you."

"I can't just _refuse!"_ Tsuna bit back, voice loud enough and vehement enough that Iemitsu leaned back a little, stern face loosening with surprise.

"There are people out there, _innocent_ people, who need this. And, even if I _do_ end up becoming a scapegoat, then I could do so knowing that somehow I have served the Clan and made life easier for someone else or saved someone in doing so because that is my _job_ as a Hunter. I know, it isn't glamourous and it probably won't be rewarding, but if I can go out there and do this and help at least a _little _then I will. For other Hunters, like you, for civilians like mama, for the people out there who depend on us…I'm not going to back down. I won't be the first to have to do this and I certainly won't be the last."

"But you're my _son,"_ Iemitsu whispered and Nana began crying in earnest then, sinking down the doorway and hiding her face in her hands.

Tsuna remained silent and let the bitterness stain his mouth in a taste as grim as blood.

* * *

"Good morning Tsuna. I had heard you had been discharged though I did not expect to find you here so early." Timoteo groaned quietly as he sank into a cross legged position next to Tsuna, waving off Tsuna's hand as the brunet tried to offer him help.

"I…I haven't yet gone to bed, Revered Chieftain. I came to meditate and found myself still here this morning."

Timoteo hummed in thought and reached forward for the low incense stand Tsuna had chosen for his own, the scent stick long since burned down to the wood.

"May I?"

Tsuna inclined his head in a respectful bow, the most he could achieve in a sat position. "I defer to your judgement."

"Don't sound so grim, Tsuna. Ah, here we go. Lavender sage." Timoteo sounded triumphant as he found what he was looking for, having rummaged through the stand. After reverently sweeping the previous ash to the side and setting the new stick alight, Timoteo sighed softly as he leaned back into position.

"What prompted you to meditate then, my dear boy?"

"Where should I even begin?" Tsuna laughed humourlessly and stared at the glowing ember at the end of the incense. "I found I couldn't face my mother and father and chose to meditate in hopes it would assuage my fears. I've discovered it has done little."

"Fear is a strong emotion to overcome, Tsuna." Timoteo shifted his weight quietly, letting his eyes slowly cross the room. "Do not doubt yourself and know that even those experienced in life will feel it and suffer from its weight. Even I, in moments where I would rather be strong, find fear is the emotion that rules me. It is the same emotion that forced my hand in having to accept a candidate for becoming Chieftain so soon and Tsuna, I so dearly wish that I could have had more time."

"Revered Chieftain…."

"I have become old, Tsuna. I have held onto my title for far too long. And though you believe yourself to be too young, too inexperienced, many others before you were too. If you look to your Clan, to your heritage, you will find examples through history of those forced into roles they did not know they could take and instead of falling, they spread their wings and soared. I have the utmost confidence in you."

"And yet my parents…."

"Are acting as any other would in their place. If I had an eligible son, I too would not want him to take this weight from my shoulders. To send you into the den of the monster armed with no knowledge of what is to come…I wish I could avoid this. The most important decisions are often the most difficult."

Tsuna pressed his face into his hands and asked, shoulders trembling, "Yet why me?"

"Tsuna…" Timoteo reached to rest a hand on Tsuna's shoulder. "If I thought anyone else could do the job, I would have chosen them."

"If it is because of my Right – "

"Tsuna, I did not choose you simply because you excel in the violence that makes a decent Hunter. The Right made the candidacy official. Perhaps I should have given you more time, given you more suggestions, but you were my choice long before you completed your Right and for that, I could never be sorrier."

Tsuna fell silent, still hunched over, face still hidden and focused on calming his breathing, slowly sitting back up to settle back into the meditation stance.

"If you want to decline the Summons that is fine. I will not judge or banish you, or even be disappointed. In fact, part of me hopes whole heartedly that you will. But I know you won't, and it is that steadfastness of heart and conviction that makes a Chieftain, a Leader, truly great."

"I…I will try to not disappoint, Revered Chieftain."

"There is no goal for you to fail, Tsuna." Timoteo's voice was warm and he squeezed Tsuna's shoulder gently.

"Now, I'm sorry to say this, but I did not come here for pleasantries. We have decided to address the problems in the Woods of Atonement and I would like you to be present for the meeting. If you need time to freshen up, that too is acceptable."

Tsuna slowly stood, feeling his knees and back complain from being seated in one position for too long and, this time, Timoteo accepted the hand Tsuna offered in help.

"Where are you expecting me?"

"The Chamber of Deliverance." Timoteo had a gleam to his eyes, mouth turned up in a soft smile.

"Though, I have always wondered why all of these places had such strange names. It's a little bit of a mouthful if you're trying to get somewhere in a hurry."

Tsuna couldn't help but laugh at that, abruptly covering his mouth and nose as he snorted, feeling mortified until he heard Timoteo chuckle gently behind him.

"Revered Chieftain….I have always wondered the same thing."

* * *

Tsuna hesitated outside of the Chamber of Deliverance for a long moment, staring at the grainy, dark coloured wood and shifting from foot to foot. He'd been dawdling for several minutes now and so lost in his thoughts, flinched when an amused voice from behind him drawled,

"It won't open just by you staring at it, kora."

Turning on his heel, Tsuna was forced to crane his neck slightly in order to make eye contact with the tall man opposite him, whose bright blue eyes were sparkling cheerfully.

"What? Have you got a message to pass on or something? Come on, I can open the door if you're too scared, kora."

He had shaggy blond hair pulled back in a bandana and was wearing a vest, covered by a dark green jacket with trousers to match, and heavy duty looking combat boots. He also had an assault rifle slung over his shoulder that Tsuna was a little wary of, taking note of the Class Secondo insignia blazed across the barrel.

"No. No message, I was invited." Tsuna gestured politely. "However, if you are so keen to enter, then feel free to do so."

"Pre-Hunt jitters, huh?" The blond laughed, absentmindedly patting the butt of his rifle. "Not used to playing with the big boys is it, kora?"

"Oh?" Tsuna rose a delicate eyebrow. "Are you included?"

"Of course I am, kora!" He thumped his chest enthusiastically. "Colonello, Arcobaleno Faction. You?"

Tsuna bowed at the shoulders. "Tsunayoshi Sawada, Hunter of the Vongola Clan and first candidate for Chieftain."

"Oh. Oh, _shit._ Sorry, kora." Colonello looked mildly alarmed. "I haven't insulted you at all, have I? Shit."

"No, no, nothing like that. I was just making polite conversation as were you." Tsuna took in a breath and knocked on the door with a murmured, "Shall we?"

Colonello gave him a wary grin, eyes lifting as the door opened to reveal Reborn, causing the grin to promptly drop.

"Ugh. I was wondering where you had gone off to, kora." Colonello muttered. "I'm here. You happy?"

"Quite." Reborn didn't bother to look at him, focused on Tsuna. "Good morning, Sawada. We can finally start the meeting now you have deigned to show your presence."

Tsuna just offered him an amicable smile, choosing not to rise to the bait, and this seemed to unnerve Reborn just slightly, who stepped back from the door and took his seat, leaving Tsuna to take the seat next to Timoteo where he was gestured. Colonello slouching into the room and dropping into the chair next to Reborn.

Tsuna was surprised to see that it was just the four of them in the vast Chamber, seated around just one corner of the large table.

"I hope you feel better, Tsuna." Timoteo had a knowing smile on his face and Tsuna ducked his head to stop himself from laughing.

"Much, Revered Chieftain. May I ask for why you need my presence?"

"After much deliberation, it was decided that our own Woods of Atonement would be the first to be seen to in the event of this Calling. As the largest Clan, and with two barriers down, we have many civilians at risk. You, Reborn, and Colonello here will be traversing the Woods to see how far the miasma has spread and to see if anything such as the Ottavo has wandered too close. Of course, you will be allowed higher Class equipment from the Armoury so you aren't too hopelessly outmatched."

"Wait, wait, kora," Colonello interrupted. "I thought that this guy here was the Chieftain-In-Training, why is he only now getting a Class upgrade?"

"If you had bothered to read the message I sent," Reborn began placidly, "then you would realise that 'this guy' was the one who had the Right that was spectated two nights ago."

Colonello fell back into his seat. "We're getting sent out with a wet behind the ears kid, kora? No offense."

"This is the same 'wet behind the ears kid' that killed an Ottavo singlehandedly and survived a hit to the head from a Dusk-kin." Timoteo said with great humour. "Don't worry, Colonello, I trust he's in good hands with you and Reborn, hmm?"

Tsuna sank into his seat, resisting the urge to hide his face in his hands.

"Of course he is, kora…but just finished the Right _and_ Chieftain to be, kora? I mean…"

"Tsuna is more than capable." Timoteo's voice lost its cheerful quality and turned sharp. "And so you should trust my judgement in this."

"Of course," Reborn interceded immediately. "How would you like us to proceed?"

Timoteo relaxed back, Colonello looking suitably embarrassed and chagrined in one.

"The most important course of action is bringing the barriers back up. Each barrier has four key points alongside its circumference." Timoteo pushed the folder that was in front of him forward, opening it up to show a simple diagram depicting what he had said. "You'll activate the outer barrier first. That way, if you need to fall back, there is less distance to go. The inner barrier should be dealt with second. Then, I want you to traverse the northern area and deal with Fiends to your discretion. Anything further north of a barrier than it should be, needs to be dealt with. The outer barriers wouldn't survive it."

Reborn nodded silently while Colonello sifted through the folder.

Tsuna just felt sick and jumped when Timoteo patted his hand, both of which were folded in front of him.

"If I didn't have faith in you, I wouldn't have agreed to this. Don't worry Tsuna. All will be fine."

Tsuna looked up, met Colonello's less than half-hearted smile and Reborn's dark eyes and still didn't feel any better.

* * *

Definitions

**The Calling:** The Calling is a rare event that has no set time for when, or if, it may occur. A Calling is organised by the highest of Class Fiend available, with a High Class Secondo being the minimum. In the event of a Calling, lower Class Fiends are often gathered, lured by the event and, as a result, havoc is wrought, ranging from mildly inconvenient to devastating. The First Calling was a strong enough Event to bring miasma and, subsequently, Fiends into the world.

* * *

So, the second chapter is out already! It may seem that I'm focusing on this new story, but rest assured I am a few thousand words into both The (Somewhat) Inevitable Harem _and_ The Summoning Pact. The Two Faces of Tsuna has gone admittedly a little stagnant, but hopefully I'll have started on that soon too.

I have my first exam in May (Wednesday the 13th actually) and so won't be able to write as much, as I'll need to focus on revision and work in order to pass these and get into Uni!

Also, a big thanks to the Beta for this story, **weisskreuz. **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three – If You Go Down To The Woods Today

"Sawada. Tsunayoshi, it's dead," Reborn said quietly, throwing an arm out to the side to keep Colonello from rushing forward. His free hand was still loosely wrapped around the grip of his pistol and, ever so slowly, he tucked it away, eyes on the slight brunet opposite him.

Tsuna was breathing heavily, chest lifting and falling rapidly in conjunction. His hands were wrapped tightly around the forelimb of a Class Nono Fiend, a leg that he had torn off during the fight and then subsequently beaten the creature, as well as the two that followed, to death with it.

The adrenaline was still rushing through his veins, his heartbeat thrumming in his ears and some part of him, deep down, was revelling in the blood and destruction. He was _excited_ and full of grim acceptance that he was a Hunter, a Predator and…blood dripped into his vision, blood that wasn't his own and the high came crashing down all at once.

Slowly loosening his fingers from the limb that even now was melting from between his fingers as the bodies faded, Tsuna let the leg drop as he stared at his bloodied hands. Just as slowly, he lifted his head to make eye contact with Reborn, face unreadable and Colonello, the blond's lower jaw slightly slack in shock.

"Right," Tsuna said, the word feeling unfitting and foreign in his mouth. "Dead." Absentmindedly he flicked his arm to the side to dislodge the worst of the blood from his gloves, a distant part of him not wanting the lush leather to be stained.

"What," Colonello's voice was flat and twisted with just the slightest bit of disbelief, "the fuck was that."

Tsuna felt like laughing but just mutely shook his head and in a motion steadier than he expected, knelt next to the closest body, trying to remember if it were the ears they collected, or the hands, when they couldn't bring the heads back.

Reborn, in a sense of camaraderie Tsuna supposed, dropped to his knees more gracefully, to the only Fiend he'd managed to kill himself with two neat shots, and pulled out his knife in order to carefully remove the left ear.

Tsuna watched, feeling almost detached from his body as he automatically followed the motions, soon holding three severed ears in his left fist, watching the remains dissolve away in thick clouds of miasma.

Colonello still had his rifle clenched tightly in his hands, blue eyes moving back and forth between the black clouds and Tsuna's face, as if trying to connect the tiny brunet to the devastation he had just witnessed.

"I'll endeavour to be less ostentatious next time," Tsuna found himself saying as he stood slowly, making eye contact with Colonello, the strange emotions warring within him easing away. "It wouldn't be fair if you didn't manage an opportunity to show off, after all, Colonello-san."

Whatever tension had been in the air slowly ebbed down as Colonello scoffed, swinging his rifle back around so it settled against his back.

"Don't hold back on my account, kora. I'll still have more kills than either of you by the end of this."

"Enough," Reborn said, almost coldly. "Any injuries?"

"None," Tsuna declared, more confident than he felt. The only burn he was suffering was the one in his arms, in his chest, and even that was drifting away as abused muscles settled back into place.

"Didn't even get a chance," Colonello barked a laugh. "What, with Sawada here, kora."

"We're a half mile from the first marker. It's going to get thicker from here on out." Reborn looked between his two hunting partners with a furrowed brow but promptly turned on his heel and walked away through the undergrowth, silently.

Tsuna followed at a sedated pace, Colonello bringing up the rear, and quietly took stock of what he had. The backpack hadn't moved from his shoulders during the fight, tightly tied down as it was so he wasn't afraid of having lost anything. His trophy knife was back in its sheathe where it had come from and the other two knives on his body were one strapped to his ankle while the other was strapped to his bag. The pistol that had been forced on him was unneeded but not unwarranted, and was holstered to his belt.

"Is that how your Right went, kora?" Colonello asked, slipping into the space to the left and just behind Tsuna.

"About the same." Tsuna let a weak laugh leave him. "About the same amount of time to prepare, about the same amount of time for it to finish."

"As violent?" Colonello asked, and shot a hand out when Tsuna stumbled at the question, gripping him at the elbow so he didn't fall.

"Well, I did rip the Kin's head off," Tsuna shot a grin over his shoulder, lifting his hand to wipe his cheek free of sticky residue, a blatant excuse to free his arm from Colonello's grip.

"I'm asking if you beat the thing to death with its own leg, kora."

"Would it make it any better if I told you I did?" Tsuna retorted, lengthening his stride, though it did nothing to deter Colonello and, after a heavy sigh, Tsuna muttered, "No. I didn't beat it to death with its own leg. I did stab it in the face with its own horn and break a shoulder but I killed it with a snapped neck."

Colonello shouldered past, pulling a surprised grunt from Tsuna, stopping in front of the brunet and Tsuna watched warily as Colonello stuck a hand out that Tsuna suspiciously shook.

"Like to apologise. For what I said about you not looking ready, kora. Killing a Kin like that, and three Herrets with just your hands…pretty fucking awesome."

"My hands…and a leg," Tsuna added wryly, and was rewarded with a heavy slap on the shoulder along with a quiet chuckle.

"Pretty fucking awesome," Colonello repeated, grinning wide as he slung an arm around Tsuna's shoulders, unperturbed when he was immediately shaken off, despite the fact Tsuna was smiling slightly.

"I'll trust your good judgement on that, Colonello-san," Tsuna replied, voice dry, though he put the right sort of amused inflection into his voice.

* * *

Reborn and Colonello were glancing at him every few seconds and Tsuna wasn't sure why. It wasn't until something inside of him almost _desperately_ urged him to veer to the right, he realised why. He made a vague grunt of noise and took a turn so sharp it was almost ninety degrees and heard as Reborn and Colonello followed him.

There was a slick sense of wrongness curling in his stomach, like he'd eaten something rotten or like there was something squirming around inside of him and he only stopped walking when this wrongness reached its peak, when he was forced to his knees and heard Colonello kneel next to him, a firm hand between his shoulder blades as he brought his meagre breakfast back up.

"Here then," Reborn muttered to himself and brought his bag around to his front, letting it hang on one shoulder.

Tsuna watched through blurred vision, his eyes watering as Reborn brought out the Stone of Shielding and readied himself for a few solid minutes of discomfort.

As the Chieftain-In-Training, recognised as next Chieftain, it was an ingrained knowledge that he simply _knew_ where the barrier was broken simply by the power of the title, where the last Stone of Shielding had failed and where the inherent gloomy feeling had originated from. That was why it had fallen to him to go in the first place, the parts clicking into place. If they hadn't have used him to discover where the Stone of Shielding had fallen, they would have been forced to traverse the entire perimeter.

"Colonello," Reborn said quietly. "Sawada will be fine. I need you on point in case something comes through before the barrier is back up."

Tsuna almost moaned as the comforting hand that had been briskly rubbing his back and tucking hair back from his face slowly leaned back on his heels, arms wrapped tightly around his stomach so, at the very least, he could look around and make a quick move if he was forced to.

"The first time is always the worst," Reborn said suddenly, even as Colonello took several steps away, leaves and debris crunching under his boots. "The feeling that something vital has broken, like there's poison in your very blood. It'll pass."

Tsuna spat to the side, moisture gathering in his mouth as his stomach churned, ready to rebel again and when he looked up, Reborn was looking at him with an expression he couldn't quite read, even as the Stone began to faintly glow.

Despite Reborn saying that it would ease, that it would start to pass, the gut wrenching sensation failed to disperse and instead intensified, instead getting to a point that Tsuna snapped his head up, made eye contact with Reborn, who was briefly startled by the quick move, and then there was a distant roar.

Colonello came bursting back through the trees, the opposite direction of the noise, eyes narrowed and almost blazing in concentration, rifle held firmly in two hands, ready to swing around at any moment.

Tsuna felt his mouth curve around the words before he could stop himself, not sure where the knowledge was coming from but it was _there_, right there in his mind, and the other two hunters briefly glanced to him as he whispered, "Misfitt, Class Settimo. Four kilometres north, far barrier side."

His fingers were curled in the dirt beneath him, his breathing in short, tiny gasps as the information came to him, flashes of images and sounds and then a hand was clasping onto his shoulder and drawing him to his feet, pushing him away from the barrier.

"What are you doing?" Reborn was asking, his hands quickly moving through the mechanical method of replacing the clip in first one pistol and then another for ammo that better suited the situation.

"He's too shaken to face a Misfitt, kora!"

"He has to get used to it!"

There was another roar, louder, closer and Tsuna felt his back collide violently with a tree as he scrambled to get his feet underneath him.

The Stone was glowing brighter now, beating in time to a hidden rhythm and, every time the light pulsed, the barrier began to slowly expand outwards and upwards where, once it had connected with the other sides, it would snap into place and disappear from sight one more.

Tsuna's head was heavy on his shoulders but he still found the energy to turn his head to the left, where he could hear a noise like distant thunder and heard the curious sound that was Reborn cursing fiercely in Italian.

The Misfitt filled the empty space, appearing as sudden as a flash of lightning. Between one heartbeat and the next the Fiend was there, drawn up onto its two back legs instead of settling on the six that it had to its disposal. Its chest was heaving violently, spittle foaming from the upper mouth.

The three eyes it had on its face rotated, first spinning two spaces clockwise, and then a dizzying amount counter clockwise, settling with the smallest eye at the top and the two largest next to each other at the bottom.

Its lower mouth opened, the entire top of its head hinging back to expose the wide maw and Tsuna was almost deafened by the noise it made, no more a roar than it was an unintelligible screech of mangled words only Tsuna could hope to understand.

The secondary mouth snapped back shut, and its middle set of arms bent backwards, out of the way to lock behind the things back, and Tsuna wasn't sure how he knew exactly, but he shouted anyway, despite the way his vision swam, images bouncing up and down, "Back hind leg, its already injured!"

The Misfitt snapped its head in his direction, lower maw opening only so a long tongue could loll out, and the thing made a chuffing noise that Tsuna identified as a monstrous sort of giggle.

"_**Oh my, oh my. Three tasty morsels, how lucky am I."**_

It took Tsuna biting down on the side of his tongue not to respond out loud and instead stared the creature down, using the tree to stand to his full height, the bark creaking as his fingers dug in and held on tight.

There was a crack of a gunshot and then the Misfitt was screeching in its black language again, its back leg buckling but only for a split second before it was corkscrewing off of the ground in a powerful launch, not at Reborn who had shot at it but, instead, at Tsuna.

Tsuna didn't even think and wrenched his arms around even as everything blurred around him, swaying left and right. There was a loud crackling noise, something tearing its way free and in the second before the Misfitt's lower mouth would have sunk into him, Colonello's shout of warning in the background, Tsuna was smashing a piece of oak tree into the things face, a piece of wood taller than he was, and wide enough that the tree he had torn it from was creaking and swaying.

There was the snap of bone from the impact and the thing whirled away with a noise close to sobbing, high pitched wheezing and whining as it pressed an upper arm hand to its face, thick, lumpy black blood spilling between its hooked fingers.

"_**He has claws, claws, he has claws hidden in his nasty little paws."**_

_Who on earth knew that apparently Misfitts were compulsive rhymers?_ Tsuna thought hysterically, even as he kept his fingers tight around the remains of his impromptu club, heart beating a tattoo into his ribcage with how fast it was going.

The Misfitt made an undulating noise in its throat and twisted back around, bloody teeth bared in the approximation of a snarl though this time, it kept its second mouth shut, making it easier for it to scan the surroundings.

Tsuna flinched almost out of his skin as a hand closed around the inside of his elbow, very nearly smashing the piece of the tree into Reborn's face and his heart jumped into his throat at the report of Colonello's assault rifle firing in rapid bursts, the Misfitt screaming and screeching as it danced back and forth on surprisingly nimble feet.

"That's disgusting," Tsuna found himself muttering under his breath even as he was dragged across the clearing towards the Stone of Shielding, ignoring the look Reborn tossed over his shoulder. He didn't clarify exactly _what_ the Misfitt wanted to do with Colonello's epiglottis, since he considered the Fiend didn't even know what an epiglottis even was.

There was also the issue of Reborn probably pegging him as insane if he so much as mentioned he understood Fiends as they spoke.

It was just a flicker at the corner of his vision, vision that was beginning to clear, but it was enough for Tsuna to body check Reborn out of the way with his shoulder as the Misfitt, trailing a bloody and loosely hanging upper arm to slam into Tsuna, the two of them crashing past several trees until it ended with Tsuna stuck on his back, left arm twisted behind him to such a point that when the Misfitt tumbled down on top of him, it made a sickening pop-crack noise.

Tsuna couldn't stop the noise of pain that left him, close to a cry, a scream, at the white hot agony dancing up and down his arm and shoulder. The less tattered upper arm of the Misfitt slammed down on his chest, the Misfitt's upper mouth snarling into his face.

"_**Go and try!"**_ Tsuna choked out, language slipping purposefully just to see how the monstrous face slackened, the eyes rotating again as it peered closer at him.

That was when Tsuna lifted his unpinned right arm to slam the knife he'd slipped free of his backpack into the side of the Misfitt's neck, four times in quick succession and then holding on for the final fifth stab as the creature finally reared back as the pain registered, perhaps a little slower than it should have.

Tsuna's grip on the knife handle, slick with blood and gunk, was tight and sure as he was dragged up with the jerky motions of the Misfitt and he only ripped the knife free with a vicious twist when his feet were off the floor, dropping to his heels with a pained grunt.

The Misfitt wheeled away, arm lifting to try and stem the gushing wound in its neck and Tsuna darted in, throwing the knife to the side and wrapping his right arm around the Misfitt's damaged arm – a better target, hanging limp and loose – and with a full body twist, a noise that sounded like thick cloth tearing and a strong branch being broken simultaneously following, Tsuna was left with an arm over half his height pinned to his side.

He wasn't sure where he had come from, but Reborn was back at Tsuna's side now and the Misfitt was screaming, not words promising pain or retribution but screaming for the sake of screaming and Tsuna ducked down as there was another burst of fire from the side, from Colonello.

Reborn threw an arm around Tsuna's shoulders, ignoring his muffled sob of pain at his mangled arm, shiny with blood and the white of bone that had broken skin and then the dark haired man was herding Tsuna away from where the Misfitt was stumbling.

Tsuna heard a distant pop, wondering if it was Reborn's gun firing and then, spitting a mouthful of blood to the side and taking in a wheezy breath, he hissed between red speckled lips and clenched teeth, "Barrier has formed."

Reborn grunted his acknowledgement, arm still tight around his shoulders, and Tsuna felt the angle they were walking in change until they stumbled through the very barrier. It felt like cold washing over his head and, within just a moment, Colonello was there too, watching as the Misfitt stumbled back and forth on the other side, middle hands pressing against the barrier.

It was staring at Tsuna, eyes wide and bright with fury and hate, tongue flickering in and out between its teeth.

"_**I'm going to tear out your heart, watch your blood run red. Let you die in the dark after you see your friends dead!"**_

The Misfitt slammed against the barrier twice and Tsuna felt himself rising to the challenge, seeing as Colonello threw away an empty clip and reloaded his gun.

"Tsuna," Reborn said warningly, holding the slight brunet back as he took a half step forward.

"_**You're going to die, you know. You and him and that one, on my claws, my teeth, and nice and slow.**_**"**

"It's almost dead," Tsuna said, taking in a long, deep breath that rattled his chest.

"You shouldn't underestimate it. Colonello will finish it off. Cornered animals fight the hardest."

"I can still fight it."

"You're _injured."_

Tsuna felt his upper lip lift in a snarl as he spat more blood to the side and, even as Reborn spoke, the ache in his arm and shoulder faded, an injury that should have sickened him, slowed him down, sinking into the background, and he felt his own blood _burn_ for the chance to kill the Fiend in front of him.

"An injury shouldn't end a hunt," Tsuna replied, running his tongue over his teeth and feeling the fingers of his right hand clench.

"You have an open fracture, Sawada. Facing the Misfitt now would be suicide for you. Catch your breath. Colonello will finish it when he's ready."

Colonello himself was catching his breath, bandana torn from his head as in impromptu bandage for a wound on his thigh.

The Misfitt had resumed prowling back and forth, the spray of blood from its neck having eased into lazy, gunky bleeding, the stump of its lost arm still bleeding. It wouldn't stop staring at Tsuna.

Tsuna, in response, felt his hackles rise as he tried to shrug Reborn away, ready to face the thing and have it done with. It was still taunting, about how it would kill them, how tasty they would be on its tongue.

The last sentence it mocked him with was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, spoken not in the dark speech, but in a butchered approximation of their language.

"_I'd wouldn't leave it just as this, I'd take your scent too. Follow it to your family, leave none to mourn you."_

"_Like hell you will!"_ Tsuna screeched before he could help himself and then he was tearing out of Reborn's grip and across the barrier, ignoring the sharp shouts, the sharp reprimands from behind him.

"It's not a Misfitt!" Was all he heard from Colonello, the faint horror curling in his words, but Tsuna was too far gone and slammed his good shoulder straight into the abdomen of the not-Misfitt with all the strength he could. The creature looked almost comically shocked despite this being the outcome it expected, and it crashed not past, but through, three trees before coming to a stop at the fourth.

Tsuna stalked after it, fury setting his nerve endings numb and his sense alight, the anger sharp and burning on his tongue. As it tried to get back up, arms scrambling rapidly against the mulchy ground. Tsuna was upon it, punching it twice in the face, then a third time, and then he was screaming in its face as he drew his hand back and kept it going, kept slamming his fist into its skull over and over and over.

When he came back to himself, he was shaking with exertion, full body trembling, and his breathing was fast, high and wheezy. Colonello was approaching him, hands up, open, empty, to show that he wasn't a danger, and Tsuna dropped his eyes to the mess he'd made of the Misfitt.

There was some semblance of a skull left. There was a pulpy mess where there had once been a face and the lower jaw was hanging grotesquely, no longer attached to anything substantial. The only eye left was the upper eye, though it was half split, the inside of it leaking downwards.

"A Caster, Sesto," Colonello said quietly as he eased a hand onto Tsuna's good shoulder, thumb pressing in and the grip grounding, anchoring Tsuna. "It copies the looks of other Fiends and fights like them. If you catch them naturally, they're easy pickings, small wiry things, about as big as cat, kora. But, it gets in your head. Tells you nasty little things, kora. Promises pain and torture, to take everything you love, kora." He eased Tsuna back gently, making a shushing noise in the back of his throat at the broken sound Tsuna couldn't help but let slip.

"You can tell what they are, by the way they speak in rhymes."

* * *

"You have regeneration, right? You have it with your strength." Reborn looked into Tsuna's face, one hand on Tsuna's left shoulder, his other hand holding Tsuna's limp left hand.

Tsuna nodded wearily, blinking more aware as Reborn briefly lifted a hand to snap fingers in his face with a sharp mutter of, "Awake. Stay _awake_ Sawada."

"Y-Yeah. I have regeneration."

"How reliable is it?" Reborn asked, replacing his hand and taking a tight hold. Tsuna let his eyes slide to Reborn's face and then back down to his fractured arm. Sucking in a sharp breath between his teeth, Tsuna replied, "Strong enough for what you're planning."

"Here, kora." Colonello abruptly interrupted, a strip of leather in his hand. "To bite down on. Wouldn't want you to die by choking on blood after all that you've just gone through, kora."

Tsuna wadded it up, wedging it into his mouth, uncomfortable as the taste of old blood and the inherent taste of leather itself pressed against his tongue. He'd barely braced his teeth against the wad of material before Reborn was yanking his arm down with a warning, hand braced tight on Tsuna's shoulder.

The scream locked itself in his throat, Tsuna's jaw aching as he bit down on the leather in his mouth. Almost immediately, Reborn was accepting the first aid kit Colonello passed him, keeping Tsuna's hand in his own and rummaging one handed in the kit with the other.

Colonello folded down next to Tsuna cross legged, swigging from a canteen that had sharp smell of alcohol, and he didn't complain when Reborn snatched it, took a gulp of his own, and poured half of the bottle onto Tsuna's open arm wound.

Tsuna was glad the leather was still in his mouth and understood Colonello's position next to him, when the blond clamped a hand as firm as steel to the back of his neck and kept him sat down as his back bowed under the white hot agony of having the liquid poured on an open wound.

Immediately after, Tsuna spat the leather out and took the bottle himself, chugging the rest of it, even as it burned down his throat and even as it made his eyes water. Colonello laughed good-naturedly, however, and Reborn just rolled his eyes.

When the canteen was empty, Colonello took it back and offered the leather again. Chancing a look at his arm, Tsuna gauged what needed to be done then declined in a croaky voice, "No. I'll be fine now."

Reborn nodded to himself, bringing out a needle and thread and proper rubbing alcohol, in which he poured over the needle. Colonello leaned over with a lighter he pulled from his pocket and lit it, letting Reborn heat the needle in the flame, the alcohol immediately evaporating off but sterilising the needle as well as they could in the circumstances.

"I'll only loose stitch. If you're regen is half as good as your strength, you'll be fine."

"So, pulling it shut to prevent dirt, but not completely?"

"No time," Reborn grunted, but inclined his head in agreement as he threaded the curved needle. The thread, thankfully, came pre-packaged and so the arduous task of sterilising that as well wasn't warranted.

Tsuna took in a deep breath and almost startled when Colonello's warm, calloused fingers slipped into his hand.

"Squeeze down if you need to, kora. Reborn isn't kind with his sutures."

Tsuna grit his teeth and gave Colonello a tight grin, one the blond returned.

As soon as the needle wheedled its way under skin, Tsuna rolled his head back, stared at the canopy for a long moment and then closed his eyes. If he was squeezing Colonello's hand tight, that was between the two of them.

* * *

"Which side of the barrier are we campin' tonight?" Colonello asked Reborn quietly. "Staying here, or swapping sides?"

"I'll set up a Rune of Holding. It'll draw from the barrier and keep us safe overnight. It doesn't really matter then."

Colonello nodded and rocked back on his heels, turning his head slightly in order to get a glance at Tsuna, who was sat, legs extended in front of him, with his back to a tree.

"We should find a stream or something for the kid, kora."

"You're going to call him kid after seeing what he's done, Colonello?" Reborn glanced up briefly, wafting a hand in front of his face when a particularly thick cloud of miasma passed by. The Caster-turned-Misfitt was still slowly disintegrating, but was barely visible between the trees.

They only knew where it was because of the destruction caused to get it into its current position, torn trees and broken branches.

"Do you _think_ he wants to know what he's done? I'm calling him kid, kora." Colonello glanced at Tsuna again, catching from the corner of his eye as Reborn did the same. "Though, I think I understand why he's Chieftain to be."

"Did you doubt the Ninth?"

"Just a little, kora. He's scrawny, bit of a whelp. Looks like a stray breeze might have snapped him in half. Then to see him fight…" Colonello sucked on his teeth, making a pinched expression as if he'd tasted something sour. "For his age, for his _experience._ Never seen anything like it, kora. But he still needs somewhere to clean up."

"There should be one to the west," Reborn muttered, rummaging through his bag. "If you're going to take him there, be quick. I can clean after the two of you, the Rune needs setting."

Colonello snapped a lazy and sarcastic salute before walking back towards Tsuna, making his steps purposefully loud so Tsuna could hazily lift his eyes to regard him. The combination of the whiskey he'd downed, plus the antibiotics and painkillers Reborn had forced onto him had made the young man a little more than woozy and Colonello simply crouched, watched and smiled as Tsuna gently swayed upon catching sight of the Arcobaleno.

"You feel like getting cleaned, kora?" Colonello gestured up and down Tsuna, prompting the brunet to drop his head to stare at the blood on his person and his hands, some his, most not. Colonello felt a little uneasy at the sharpening of Tsuna's eyes at regarding the blood and then Tsuna set his jaw, lifted his eyes which were far clearer than before and nodded.

"Good. You stink." Colonello reached down and gripped Tsuna's better shoulder, pulling the skinnier man to his feet and steadying him as he briefly stumbled. He peered closely into Tsuna's eyes, which skittered away and to the side and so Colonello simply chose to glance at Tsuna's arm. To his surprise, the skin was already beginning to join back together.

No wonder the wooziness was easing off so fast, though Colonello kept his hand to Tsuna's shoulder. It was fading, but it was still clear that Tsuna could barely walk steady without assistance.

"Bet this wasn't how you expected your first joint Hunt to turn out, huh, kora?" Colonello asked conversationally, steering Tsuna where he needed to go and mentally taking stock about what washing implements he had and if any of them were scentless.

"Wasn't expecting a hunt for a few weeks at least," Tsuna grunted. "Nothing ever goes as you expect it to though." He lifted a hand to scrub over his face, scratching off flaky bits of something and then running his fingers through his hair.

Colonello barked out a quick laugh. "Well, that's the truth, kora. I didn't expect to go on a hunt with a little thing like you."

Tsuna gave him a dirty look, but the twitching at the corner of his mouth gave him away and Colonello briefly lifted his hand to ruffle Tsuna's hair roughly.

"Don't look at me like that, kora. You're a tough one with a hell of a right hook. Most hunters don't learn hand-to-hand, so who taught you, kora?"

"Self-taught street brawling," Tsuna admitted after a brief silence. "I was a scrawny kid. Got picked on a lot. Learned how to fight back. The knife work practice afterwards helped. Just follow the motions but lean more into them, compensate for the lack of knife and punch instead."

"I don't think I know a hunter alive that would punch the absolute shit out of a Fiend, let alone a Caster hidden as a Misfitt."

"Glad I could amuse," Tsuna replied dryly, with a sarcastic half-bow that almost sent him careening into a tree headfirst. Colonello caught him with a hand on his arm, an apology already halfway out of his mouth as he realised which arm he had grabbed but, aside from his nail catching on an unneeded stitch, Tsuna's arm was unblemished aside from a scar.

"Adrenaline," Tsuna said quietly in response to Colonello's almost gawping face, "is a wonderful thing."

"So which one is dominant?" Colonello asked. "The fisticuffs or the healing, kora."

"They're equal at the moment. Revered Chieftain liked to say how I was 'brimming with potential' and so I guess he meant this. He said two wasn't rare, that you and Reborn, the other Arcobaleno have them too."

"Hmm," Colonello replied, eyes still on the scar and then he stepped back from Tsuna's space and continued to lead him between the trees until he could hear the rush of water. He didn't need to guide Tsuna anymore, but he stayed closer than strictly closer than necessary in order to reach out if he needed to.

At seeing the river, Tsuna gratefully dropped to his knees and began the process of peeling his gloves off. They stuck to his skin briefly, where blood had caked them tight to his wrists, but he managed to snap them off. It was almost a shock, to see how white his hands and fingers were underneath, pale compared to his stained forearms and overall dirty countenance.

"How clean are we looking to get?" Tsuna asked, leaning forward to scrub at his arms and squawking when something landed on his head. Scrambling to get untangled from the heavy bundle of cloth, he turned his head with an indignant expression just to see a shirtless Colonello toeing his boots off and unbuckling his belt at the same time.

"As clean as a fucking whistle, kora. Not traipsing through the woods smelling of fresh kill. What, you need help getting undressed?"

Tsuna felt his mouth twist into a scowl even as his eyes tracked a wickedly curved scar that curled from Colonello's abdomen and around his back. But, when he lifted his eyes and saw Colonello regarding him with amusement, he scoffed and tugged his own shirt off over his head, feeling it peel free from his skin.

"You're absolutely filthy." Colonello sounded in wonder even as the clink of his belt undoing sounded and he stepped forward in just boxers, pointing a bare toe into the cold water.

"It happens when you fight something up close," Tsuna muttered back as he fumbled with his own boots. It took a few moments but he was just as lacking in clothes as Colonello and, suddenly, unbidden, he felt woefully inadequate, as scrawny as he was compared to Colonello's bulk.

That was when Colonello's hand came crashing down between his shoulder blades and he fell face first into the waist deep river, cold water rushing into his lungs before he got his feet underneath him, spluttering indignantly.

"Oh, you look a little more human now, kora!" Colonello laughed as Tsuna rubbed over his face to get water out of his eyes and then gave Colonello a dirty look.

Colonello fell quiet though, as Tsuna stood fully, eyes tracking down as his mouth pulled slightly into a frown. Then, before Tsuna could feel nervous and cover up, Colonello asked, "Bruises take longer, kora?"

Tsuna startled, but glanced down to himself. The sudden smack into the water had sluiced off a lot of the blood but it wasn't difficult to see the dark purple spreading from his hip to his chest. There was a particularly large bruise covering from his left hand side ribcage to his collarbone, where the Misfitt had slammed its hand down onto him.

"Vital injuries first. There's a system, apparently," Tsuna murmured in reply, scratching at his arm to get more blood to flake off. "Suppose it would be a little lacklustre as regeneration if it went for a bruise first when I'm bleeding out."

Colonello grunted then jerked his head. "Sit down," he muttered. "Gonna wash that rats nest of a head of yours, kora. Hope you like the lovely smell of nothing."

"Issued stuff?" Tsuna asked as he slowly folded his legs underneath at him, shivering at intervals due to the coldness of the water.

"The best of the absolute worst, kora," Colonello agreed as he rummaged in his rucksack. "As bland as bland can get."

Tsuna snorted, finally settled in the water, though he still flinched when Colonello crashed into the river behind him, sending a wave of cold water sloshing over his shoulders.

He flailed briefly as Colonello planted a hand on his head and shoved him under water to wet his hair again, but after that subjected himself to the fate he was suffering, wincing ever so briefly when Colonello started scrubbing at his hair and accepting the white bar of soap his was offered.

"They won't be all like this, kora," Colonello murmured. "Not all hunts. This isn't even a hunt, you know? Just a job that happens to involve Fiends. But, when you go on a proper joint hunt, the thrill of following the signs, of tracking it down, of putting an end to it and seeing the hope on people's faces…well, kora. That's the worth of it all."

Tsuna just stared at his blood splattered arms, his bruised torso, the stitches sticking from scarred skin and wondered if it would get any easier.

* * *

**Fiends Mentioned:**

**Misfitt:  
**Class: Settimo  
Appearance: A Misfitt stands at a towering eight foot tall, with individuals varying anywhere from six inches to another two foot. Its face is primarily flat, and possess three eyes that will rapidly rotate to the best position considering the situation. It has six interchangeable limbs. Depending on mood, it will walk on anything from two legs, to six. Most encounters show an affinity for two legged walking. The upper limbs are often utilised, with the middle arms able to connect together at the back in order to keep them out of the way. The upper four limbs have six double jointed fingers, with a seventh acting as a thumb. Most of the length of their fingers comes from hooked claws that are permanently present and cannot be retracted. A Misfitt has two mouths. The first mouth is set almost directly under the eyes and opens as a normal mouth would. This mouth has two rows of teeth in the top jaw, with three rows in the bottom. Each first row is hooked, in order to hold on and not let go. What would typically be called the 'jawline' is in fact where the secondary mouth sits. A Misfitt can open this mouth wide enough to hinge almost half of their head. It has two rows of teeth, both upper and lower. The colour of a Misfitt can vary from pitch black, to a deep, rusty red.  
Temperance: Unknown  
Risk: Approach with great caution

**Caster**  
Class: Sesto  
Appearance: A Caster's original form will vary, from anywhere between the size of cat to the size of a Great Dane. However, catching one in its original form is rare, as they take on the appearance of other Fiends they have encountered. Until proven otherwise, any Fiend encountered could be a Caster. The original form only returns by the will of the Caster. Any Caster that dies in a different form will remain in that form.  
Temperance: Plays with its food. Tends to follow the temperaments of the Fiends it copies loosely, if just to keep the ruse. Has a high affinity for mind games and is suggested to be slightly telepathic. Very good at instigating key emotions, such as fear, anger or jealousy. Likes to rhyme; whether compulsive or choice is unknown.  
Risk: Avoid if possible if alone; do not approach with less than a three man team. Consider having a hunter present with a protection skill

* * *

Third Chapter in! This thing is probably going to be a _beast. _I don't think I'm sorry yet.

Thanks to my beta **weisskreuz** for looking over this chapter for me!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four – You're Sure Of A Big Surprise

The hallways were dark with blood, red and slick. Somewhere, in the near distance, someone was sobbing softly. The overhead lights were flickering sporadically, buzzing and clicking whenever they lit up and making a soft 'thunk' sort of noise whenever they dimmed.

There was a body slumped against a doorway, limp and quiet but eyes open and alert. They were breathing, wet and wheezy, as something loose rattled in their chest.

Vaguely, Tsuna knew he was dreaming. Trapped in a body he couldn't control as he walked down the corridor, his fingertips trailing against splattered walls. It was a strange sort of detachment, like witnessing what was happening without being in control of any actions.

Part of his mind was screaming that this was very, very wrong. The compound was impenetrable. The amount of blood and scattered body parts suggested a lot of people had died.

Slowly, he moved his hand to his mouth and couldn't even find it in himself to gag as he dabbed his tongue against bloodstained fingertips.

The body gurgled loudly, the noise echoing down the corridor, and Tsuna felt his head turn in their direction. There was a stump where the left leg was supposed to have been, a hole in their abdomen that should have killed them but…stubbornly they clung to life, glaring defiantly at Tsuna.

Tsuna felt the urge to turn, to glance over his shoulder because, certainly, he didn't deserve such a hate filled gaze? But his body wandered forward without his permission, arms periodically twitching by his sides as he walked closer at a shuffling gait.

_Buzz! Click!_

The lights hummed back into life throwing the corridor into sharp relief, shadows dancing up and down the walls.

The sobbing continued.

Tsuna stared numbly at the sluggishly bleeding form of his father, eyes dragging down to where the man was loosely holding onto a knife as if he had the energy to make one more attempt at fighting back.

The screaming part of Tsuna's mind was becoming deafening and he felt his left eye briefly flutter, his eyelid rapidly flickering like a camera shutter would. He wasn't too sure what he was supposed to be worried about though.

Crookedly, like a puppet on strings, he crouched, his bloody fingers reaching forward to steal the knife in a movement that was far too easy, tossing the sharp weapon to the side and hearing it clatter down the farthest end of the corridor.

Iemitsu's mouth opened and closed rapidly, his words falling on deaf ears as Tsuna cocked his head to the side and observed quietly.

He didn't fight the urge to reach forward, fingers cruelly digging into the hole, fresh blood gushing out over his palm and speckling Iemitsu's lips in a strange pattern, dark red against pale skin as the man coughed in pain.

Unbidden, Tsuna licked his lips.

The sobbing continued.

His mind screamed louder and louder as if telling him that something was wrong, so very wrong, _what are you doing?_

Tsuna smiled even as Iemitsu cursed, reaching forward with his free hand, blood caked under his fingernails.

Iemitsu's ragged swears fell quiet on the tail end of a gurgle and the light above them clunked its way back into darkness.

There was a flicker of movement down the corridor that Tsuna turned his head to face, eyes connecting with his mother's wide, frightened gaze.

He smiled wider, showing bloody teeth and dropped what remained of his father's windpipe onto the floor.

* * *

Tsuna woke up screaming, thrashing in his sleeping bag and clawing his way free, feeling suddenly stifled in the closed environment that was his tent.

There was muffled cursing and banging from his left, a shadow crossing the front of his tent and then the zipper was being harshly ripped up. Tsuna didn't even let whoever it was get in, shouldering his way past and managing four steps away from the tent before he was throwing up at the base of a tree, shaky hand pressed against the bark.

"What the _fuck?"_ A bleary eyed Colonello roared as he stumbled from his tent, hand wrapped around the handle of a long blade, more of a machete than anything else.

Tsuna felt rough fingers tug his hair back from his face as he hopelessly heaved, one arm curled around his stomach while the other was digging into the tree.

Pulling his arm away from his stomach was surprisingly difficult, his skin sticking wetly to the material.

That was when he and Reborn both noticed the blood and Tsuna didn't struggle as he was violently wrangled out of his night shirt, Reborn yanking him back towards the tents.

The sudden flash of a torch made Tsuna cringe as it light up right in front of him but he glanced down at himself, at his pale skin patterned with red blood.

He'd clawed himself up, the wounds already healed but leaving the blood behind, tacky and sticky and oh so cloying.

Reborn's expression was carefully blank but Colonello had something close to pity twisting his sleepy face as he looked Tsuna up and down, hand holding the knife loosely dropping to his side.

"Nightmare," Tsuna offered croakily, holding a hand out for his shirt. Reborn passed it back along with a canteen of water and a quiet instruction to clean up.

"Well, it's not unexpected," Colonello offered, yawning softly. "You did encounter a Caster, kora. It really had it out for you too, so no doubt it got in your head."

Tsuna poured the water over the shirt and used it to start scrubbing at his shoulders and chest, trying not to remember how it had felt to crush a windpipe between his fingers. The fact it had belonged to his _father_ made the sensation so much worse.

His stomach roiled and heaved wildly again and he was hard pressed not to bring up anything else.

"Do you need to talk about it?" Surprisingly, it was Reborn who asked and Tsuna tightened his fingers around the shirt, scrubbing more ferociously at his arms as he defensively hunched his shoulders.

"It's better to clear your mind than to let it linger," Reborn added, looking impeccable and unperturbed despite being awoken by Tsuna's screaming no more than five minutes earlier. Tsuna briefly took note that he had a gun shoved into the waistband of his night trousers.

"Before I…killed it," Tsuna started.

"Mulched it, you mean," Colonello muttered with another yawn and ignored the sharp look Reborn gave him.

"Before I killed it, it mentioned going after my family to kill them too," Tsuna wrung his hands together absently, twisting the shirt around his fingers and wrists. "That's what the nightmare was about."

"The Caster killing your parents?"

"_Me_ killing them," Tsuna mumbled in reply, swallowing the lump present in his throat. "Pretty vividly. I-I couldn't control it. There was blood and body parts everywhere. Just killed dad, was going after mama…"

"It must have gone straight for you and ignored the both of us," Reborn murmured, "For you to have experienced something so strong."

Tsuna swallowed again, lifting one hand free from the shirt, to scrub at the base of his throat. Abruptly, he flexed his fingers and tried to ignore the sensation of blood trickling onto his palm, of his nails digging into unprotected muscle and flesh.

"Try not to let it get to you, kora," Colonello advised, scratching at his shoulder and blinking blearily. "The effects will linger for maybe like, two days, and then you'll forget it ever happened."

Tsuna nodded slowly, holding his shirt to his chest and watching as Reborn gave a cursory glance around the small campsite and then disappeared back into his own tent, zipping it up tightly.

Colonello on the other hand, while he had disappeared into his tent briefly, came back out lugging his sleeping bag and making his way to Tsuna's tent. Tsuna quickly found himself crossing the clearing to intercept him and asking, "W-What are you doing?"

"It's four hours until sunrise, kora. You're not going to get any sleep unless there's someone else there is my guess. So I'm going to be the biggest, most muscular teddy bear you've ever had so you don't wake Reborn again. Hell hath no fury like a Reborn who hasn't had his recommended eight hours of beauty sleep."

There was a muffled curse from Reborn's direction and Tsuna found himself laughing quietly to himself, glad that Reborn could apparently act as human as the rest of them.

Colonello swung his arm not wrapped around his sleeping bag onto Tsuna's shoulders, ushering him towards the tent.

"I hope you don't kick in your sleep or anything, kora."

"I wouldn't know, I've never shared my sleeping space with anyone else before."

Colonello gave a lecherous grin, waggling his eyebrows as he nudged into Tsuna. "So I'm your first, huh? Good to know, kora."

Tsuna spluttered and elbowed him in the stomach with more force than necessary, Colonello doubling over and wheezing despite the grin still in place on his face.

Clambering into his tent and fumbling for his torch, Tsuna shone the bright white light into the space he'd been sleeping. It looked like someone had been murdered, blood scattered this way and that. Colonello, sticking in his head, crinkled his nose and grunted in disgust.

"We'll have to bunk in my tent. I've a spare bag, you'll have to use that, kora, until your shit is less…gross."

"Thank you," Tsuna found himself saying numbly, flashlight unwavering as he pointed it at the wet patches of blood, the wide, frightened eyes of his mother flashing through his mind.

The urge to reach out a hand to trail his fingers through the blood was a strong one and Tsuna bit down hard on the inside of his cheek instead, until he could taste copper and iron and then after grabbing his gloves as a precaution, Tsuna ducked back out of the tent, leaving his wet shirt behind as part of the mess to be dealt with in the morning.

"You alright sleeping shirtless or do you need to borrow something?" Colonello asked, appraising him from the corner of his vision. "Don't be afraid to say if you need anything, kora. We're not going to begrudge your weakness for getting nightmares 'cause of a Caster."

"I keep remembering," Tsuna said quietly. "Like it actually happened. And to be honest, I'd rather _not_ continuously relive what exactly the contents of my father's abdominal cavity felt like." His fingers twitched, unbidden, and Colonello's hand shot down to grip his wrist.

"That's very particular," Colonello agreed quietly, tightening his grip when Tsuna tried to pull free. Colonello's fingers overlapped around Tsuna's tiny wrist, his thumb easily reaching the first knuckle of his index finger.

"Colonello," Tsuna said, keeping his voice low but warning, once again trying to pull his hand free.

"It's a quiet night, isn't it, Tsuna?" Colonello asked suddenly, turning to face Tsuna and unperturbed by the angry look he was being given.

"If you don't let go, I'm going to use force," Tsuna responded, giving one last tug on his wrist.

"I don't think there's any reason to argue, kora," Colonello insisted, grip shifting a little looser, not completely letting Tsuna go, but so he could press his thumb to the pulse in Tsuna's wrist.

"There isn't," Tsuna agreed bitingly, his other hand curling into a fist. "So long as you let me go."

"In fact, I think you should relax, Tsuna. Rough night, kora. It's time to go back to sleep."

Tsuna felt the scathing remark on his tongue, felt the annoyance bubbling away inside of him but, abruptly and almost worrying, it washed away leaving him feeling loose-limbed and relaxed.

Colonello smiled knowingly, letting go of Tsuna's wrist in order to rest his arm around Tsuna's lower back, keeping him supported as the younger hunter swayed on the spot, suddenly exhausted and strangely wobbly on his feet.

"W-What did you do to me," Tsuna slurred, almost eagerly leaning into the warm line of Colonello's body, grateful for the heat, the exhaustion becoming stronger and stronger with every heartbeat.

"I'll tell you in the morning, kora," Colonello replied soothingly, guiding him forward.

Tsuna just nodded dumbly, feeling his eyelids drift. Colonello managed to get him inside of the tent and then into a sleeping bag with the ease of someone who had done it before.

Tsuna fell asleep to the sounds of Colonello zipping up the tent and then quietly climbing into his own sleeping bag, the material rustling softly.

* * *

Waking up was difficult. He was warm, almost unbearably so, and he felt undeniably comfortable. Blearily opening his eyes, Tsuna was surprised to see it was still dim despite the fact it must have at been morning already.

That was when he realised it was dark because he had his face mushed into something warm and heavy, something that was breathing evenly and was rustling his hair with every exhale.

The memories of the night before came back quicker than he expected but his attempt at sitting up was impeded by the arm – _Colonello's arm_ his mind reminded him – that was settled over his waist.

"Colonello-san," Tsuna hissed, leaning back as best he could. His cheek, stuck to Colonello's pectoral muscle due to sweat and prolonged contact, peeled free with a noise that made Tsuna grimace.

"Colonello-san, get up," he wriggled fruitlessly, jabbing with elbows and knuckles until he finally got somewhere sensitive enough for the blond to grunt and jerk away, Colonello abruptly rolling onto his other side and throwing the arm previously around Tsuna over his eyes with a pathetic groan.

Tsuna freed himself of the sleeping bag as quickly as he could, hand fisting in his trousers to hike them back up from where they'd slipped slightly down his waist and over his hips. He had just reached the zip, one hand on the tab of cold metal when fingers closed around his ankle and he had to bite his tongue to stifle the yelp.

"S'too early," Colonello grumbled at him, hand tight despite how tired and lethargic his voice was. "Not goin' anywhere yet, go back t'sleep."

Not to be swayed from his goal, Tsuna tugged the zip down and said, voice firm and unwavering, "I need to pee."

"If you don't come back, m'comin' to get you, kora…" Colonello warned sleepily, letting his hand fall away as he burrowed under his sleeping bag and hid his face into the pillow.

"Sure you are," Tsuna muttered to himself as he climbed out of the tent slowly, stretching fully as soon as he was free with a pleased groan.

Almost immediately there was a soft shriek to his left and the clattering sound of many things trying to get away at once, and Tsuna jerked his head to the left, towards the noise, and watched as low level Fiends, the largest the size of a Labrador, many smaller, scurried away from where they had been pressed up against the barrier, curious.

Tsuna snorted under his breath as he walked towards his tent and promptly stopped, staring at the small thing at his feet.

"**Human,"** it greeted, many eyes blinking up at him. **"You survived your encounter."**

Tsuna stared for a long moment, wondering how the tiny little thing had gotten past the barrier Reborn had set before they had gone to sleep the night before. Then, almost violently, he scrubbed at his eyes for several moments, convinced he was hallucinating from exhaustion. Lowering his hands showed it still there.

"**Good morning," **it said cordially to him, blinking again but much slower.

"What the actual hell," the words fell from Tsuna's mouth before he could stop himself. "How did you get in here, there's a barrier up, you shouldn't be able to…"

"**Barriers have never been an issue."** The creature cocked its head to the side, staring so unnervingly that Tsuna shifted on the spot. **"You encountered a Dread Creature of some strength and dispatched it. I came to investigate."**

"Why?" Tsuna asked, trying not to sound hysterical and glancing towards Reborn's tent and then Colonello's, paranoid one of the two would hear him apparently talking to himself in the dark, guttural language Fiend's possessed.

"**It affected you in ways you cannot understand,"** the creature told him placidly. **"So long as I can be certain no lasting damage has been done, there is no need for my being here."**

"How did you get _in_ though?" Tsuna waved a hand wildly. "What do you care for?" It had helped him find the Dusk-Kin during his Right and now it was back? Had he failed in his etiquette somehow? Did demons care for etiquette when it came to deals?

The tiny thing started to wobble, popping and crackling and then stretching until, quite suddenly, it was standing on two legs, taller than Tsuna and looking wholly human.

Tsuna was hit with the frightening knowledge that only powerful Fiends could hide in human form but, as much as he tried to open his mouth, sound would not leave him. He couldn't warn Reborn or Colonello.

He was going to die.

The creature paced around him, hands clasped behind its back and eyes bright and unreadable. Tsuna tried not to cry as cold, claw tipped fingers combed through the fine hairs at the back of his neck, the sensation of ice water trickling down his spine making him shudder.

"**The Caster caused more damage than perhaps you were prepared for. You aren't quite ready yet."**

Almost affectionately, it set its hand on Tsuna's head, as if about to ruffle his hair.

"**You did well human, to face a Caster head on and survive. A weaker willed mind would have succumbed."**

Tsuna still couldn't speak, his voice trapped in his throat and his chest tight with fear as the creature circled back around to face him.

"**But, I think we've spoken enough."**

He couldn't even flinch back as it reached out clawed fingers to tap his forehead.

* * *

Tsuna woke up with a start, throwing his arm out automatically and catching Colonello in the nose with his elbow, wondering how he'd managed to get back inside the tent, his heart beating hard enough to nearly jump up his throat.

Colonello rolled away with a gargled yelp, hands flying to his nose and inadvertently smacking Tsuna in return. Blood was already dribbling through his fingertips.

Ignoring the cursing blond, Tsuna threw himself out of the tent and into the clearing, chest heaving violently as he glanced around first at the ground and then towards the barrier.

The small creature was there again, staring at him from the outside edge of the barrier, closest to the Stone, and Tsuna found himself waking over, stumbling over tree roots and ignoring as his feet dug into sharp rocks.

The creature turned away and started to hop away.

Tsuna broke into a run before he could stop himself, reaching out and crashing through the barrier with little finesse. He made it about a dozen steps, slapping branches out of the way and breaking them down with the force before he was tackled about the waist, landing face first on the ground and getting a mouthful of dead leaves.

"Whatever you can see, it isn't what you think it is," was muttered in his ear, a warning palm settling on the back of his neck. "Close your eyes, focus on my voice. The Caster is still lingering, so don't follow it."

"Reborn," Tsuna spat out the mess in his mouth, trying to twist out of the hold, a knee firmly in his lower back. If he really fought he could get free. There was also a twig digging into his stomach somewhere in the region he reckoned his liver was, which was really uncomfortable.

"Can you hear me?"

"Reborn, there was – "

"There was _nothing."_ The warning hand on his neck pressed harder. "Forget about it. Don't fall down the rabbit-hole, you aren't Alice."

"Reborn – "

"_Nothing, _Sawada. Do I have to send you back and tell the Chieftain you fell to Caster madness? That wouldn't be a very good first impression now, would it?"

Tsuna curled his fingers into the leaves and soil below him, closing his eyes and taking in deep breaths of the earthy smell and listening to Reborn's heavy breathing, the rustle of the trees above him and the distant calls of waking animals unaffected by miasma and Fiends.

"Are you calm?"

"I am," Tsuna replied, sounding more level than he felt. It was apparently believable enough as Reborn was standing, hauling Tsuna gracelessly to his feet, fingers tight around his upper arm.

"Colonello isn't impressed you broke his nose."

"I'm sorry," Tsuna bit back, trying to swallow down the anger and hysteria. He was streaked in muck and dirt and stray leaves and couldn't stop the urge to chase after the creature even now.

"Don't be. It was funny."

Reborn's voice was so blank that Tsuna had to glance at his face to make sure he wasn't being mocked. However, there was some semblance of amusement in Reborn's eyes and Tsuna, inexplicably, found himself relaxing, lifting a muddy hand to scrub against his face.

In retrospect, it wasn't a smart move, but Reborn's gaze softened even further and he herded Tsuna roughly towards the barrier, towards where Colonello was staring at a pile of tinder and trying to will it into fire with the force of his gaze, one hand holding a wad of tissues to his nose.

"Sorry," Tsuna found himself apologising to Colonello, flinching almost automatically when the taller hunter turned on him, eyes narrowed and unreadable. But then, like a switch had been flipped, Colonello grinned, punched him in the shoulder with his free hand and replied, "We've all been on the receiving end of a Caster, kora. Can't blame you."

Tsuna nodded, hesitatingly briefly and then blurting out, "Did I leave the tent and come back?"

Colonello looked at him strangely for a moment and Tsuna heard the rustling that was Reborn in the background come to a stop as the other man listened in.

"Yeah, kora. Went for a piss, came straight back in."

"Right." Tsuna scratched the back of his neck. "Just can't remember actually climbing back into sleeping bag, let alone the tent."

"S'not an unusual symptom," Colonello offered weakly, but his gaze was jumping between Reborn and Tsuna, an unreadable twist to his brow that Tsuna identified as worry.

"You don't sound so sure," Tsuna accused, taking a step forward but Reborn's hand slapped down on his shoulder pulling him to a stop.

"Sounds to me," Reborn began mildly, "that Colonello did something he shouldn't have."

Colonello gritted his teeth, a muscle in his jaw jumping as he lowered his hand from his face, falling into a defensive posture.

"It helped him sleep, kora. No good if he can't sleep because he keeps reliving the murder of his parents in his dreams."

Reborn made a disapproving, clucking sort of noise, almost dismissive. His hand, tight enough on Tsuna's shoulder to hurt, belied the anger he must have been feeling.

"And did you ask?"

Colonello drew himself taller, overall countenance loosening as if he was getting ready for a fight and that was when it clicked for Tsuna who twitched in remembrance.

"You did something to me last night."

"To help you sleep," Colonello shot back and was surprised when Tsuna shrugged and muttered, smiling awkwardly if thankfully, "Well, it worked."

"Good," Colonello said warily, glancing between him and Reborn again, eyes flicking periodically as if he was expecting an attack for either direction.

"What was it?" Tsuna asked, voice calm and relaxed, face loose and not showing anything remarkable.

Colonello chewed the inside of his cheek, seemed to receive some sort of invisible signal and muttered, "Secondary ability. Forces calm on everything in the radius. If I focus it, it knocks 'em clean out, kora. I've been told it's like going under a general. Can't remember anything."

"Well, I'd have to agree with you there," Tsuna nodded, lifting his head just slightly to make eye contact. "Do it again without my knowledge and you won't be able to have children, Colonello-san. Ever."

Tsuna was pleased to see Colonello go pale, fingers loosening in shock but it seemed that Tsuna was threatening enough in his own right, at least.

Of course, Colonello had seen him punch a monster to death and that was probably an incentive enough for the blond to not make the same mistake of presuming he could do what he wanted for the perceived "greater good".

Reborn, ever so surprisingly, gave Tsuna a slap on the shoulder and laughed, shortly and lowly, before turning to his tent, presumably, to get changed.

He'd given chase to and tackled Tsuna in his pyjamas. Tsuna was sort of in awe for his dedication to doing what he had to.

But remembering the mess of his tent and his currently messy self, covered in mud and pieces of plant matter, he was reminded he had cleaning up to do and, with a hefty sigh, trudged to his tent.

Colonello still stood stock still in the clearing where he had hesitantly returned to staring at the tinder.

* * *

By the time Tsuna had returned from the cold stream, his things as clean as possible, his tent had been packed up for him alongside the others and Reborn was shoving a bowl of something into his hands that Tsuna had to juggle with his wet clothing.

"What is this?"

"Breakfast. Eat it, pack up, then we're going."

Tsuna eyed the bowl warily, but dumped his wet bundle with his packed tent and backpack and accepted the spoon Colonello passed to him, the blond in mid-process of scraping his own bowl clean.

It was very filling, surprisingly tasty considering it had been made out of the disgusting field rations every hunter was equipped with. When he was finished, Tsuna helped the others clean the utensils with a canteen of water and a ragged cloth before he lifted his pack onto his back, shifting the straps until he was comfortable.

"Today we go for the second barrier. Don't let your guard down. Colonello and I have the estimation that this stretch of land was the Caster's territory, so we shouldn't face much on towards the next barrier."

Tsuna nodded, falling into step as they began their march deeper into the woods. The miasma here was becoming thicker and thicker now until, an hour after they had set out, it felt like they were wading through shin deep water, a little resistance that was noticeable but not difficult to pass through.

"The barrier will take about fifteen minutes, then we're to follow the northern perimeter, right?" Tsuna asked once they'd stopped for a water break. The niggling from the day before regarding the barrier stone was back, digging at his stomach just behind his belly button.

"When the barrier is made, we'll set up camp then, kora," Colonello answered, handing over the bottle to Tsuna who took a grateful swig. "You'll get the exhaustion after setting it up, obviously, so you won't be too good. Might even need a nap, kora. Yesterday the adrenaline got to you soon."

"If you end up needing to sleep, Colonello and I will do a check for about two kilometres around and pick off what we need to. After that, we head north and swing back around towards the compound in the opposite direction we came from. If there's anything out of place, we kill it and continue. We should return to the compound by tomorrow evening if there are no complications."

Tsuna remembered, very briefly, the little creature from the camp that morning. In response, his hand violently twitched as he passed the bottle back over to Colonello, but ignored the concerned glance he was given when the water sloshed over the other's hand.

"Can I ask a favour?" Tsuna suddenly asked, hiking his bag a little higher on his back, rubbing at his shoulder where the strap was digging in. Before he was given acquiescence, he continued, "If my mum and dad ask what happened, you two killed the dangerous things, okay? I don't want them to know if they don't have to."

"Momma's boy?" Colonello laughed.

Tsuna turned to face him and said, utterly serious, "You're damn right. My mother is a force of nature and shouldn't be taken lightly."

"Nana Sawada is a frightening person, Colonello, I would advise getting on her bad side," Reborn interjected and Tsuna looked at him in surprise.

"I was on the hunt that nearly permanently incapacitated your father. Your mother is five foot two inches of pure fury when incited."

Tsuna snorted in agreement and then muttered, "Its worse when she cries at you."

Reborn gave him an odd look and murmured, "I can imagine it is."

"Reborn came back looking like he'd faced hell and survived," Colonello made a curious noise between a cough and a chuckle. "Entirely shell-shocked. Never knew it was because of Mama Sawada, kora."

Tsuna felt himself relaxing, unsure when he'd gotten tense. The hunt so far hadn't gone entirely as expected but at the very least, he could now feel comfortable around the other two.

The next step he took hit him like a bolt of lightning as he felt the inane urge to go to the left _right now_ and before he could excuse himself from the conversation, he was striding forward off the slightly beaten path, ducking under branches and squeezing between tightly packed trees.

The hole in the barrier was more noticeable than the one before was. What Tsuna noticed as he fell to his knees and heaved at the sensation of wrongness was the miasma from beyond the barrier pouring through the gap like a wall of black smoke, spreading into the surrounding forest, a creeping sickness.

At this point it was even a battle to breathe in it, though Colonello and Reborn looked unfazed at the cloying scent of rot and death, resolutely ignoring the clammy sensation of miasma seeping into every pore unchecked.

"Is there anything nearby this time, Tsuna?" Colonello asked, checking and rechecking his rifle in unhurried movements, before lifting his eyes in time to see Tsuna shake his head. As soon as his head went still Tsuna groaned pathetically at the ache in his stomach.

Colonello looked sympathising again, glanced at Reborn setting up the barrier, and then chose to crouch next to Tsuna, soothingly rubbing his back again.

"You're really sensitive to this stuff, kora. More than I've seen anyone else react. You aren't going to drop dead from the miasma, are you?"

Tsuna rolled his eyes and his head swam at the motion, his stomach rolling in rebellion, inciting him to duck over further, arms wrapped around his stomach.

"It's just so wrong," Tsuna muttered. "Like an infection you gotta get rid of before it reaches everything else."

"You'll get used to it," Reborn said firmly from his position setting up the stone and then stepping back when it was placed correctly. Almost immediately, Tsuna felt the ache in his stomach ease as the barrier slowly spread outwards, cutting off the flow of miasma in small patches.

Tsuna grunted and doubled over until his head was almost pressed to his thighs, shuddering briefly.

"It's pretty bad," Colonello said quietly, most likely to Reborn, and then he asked softly, "Are you sure there's nothing nearby or coming in this direction?"

"There's nothing. It's the miasma or something, I don't know, it's just so _wrong."_ Tsuna moved to wipe the back of his wrist against his mouth, muttering a thanks as Colonello passed him a water bottle so he could swill the acidic taste out of his mouth.

"It's his first time feeling a broken barrier. It's also his first official hunt, Colonello. That means he's never been this deep before and he's still sensitive to the miasma. As soon as the barrier forms, it'll get easier."

"I guess, kora…" Colonello sounded unsure but kept patting Tsuna's back, as if doing so would dislodge whatever was making him feel so ill.

Tsuna stayed curled up until the barrier reconnected and snapped back into place, his gut still roiling like a storm but less painful. When he eased back onto his heels, he accepted Colonello's helping hand up and had to fight the sudden urge to yawn.

"Is that it, done?" Reborn asked, watching him closely, and Tsuna nodded, scrubbing at his eye gently before something flickered in the corner of his vision. Whipping his head around startled Colonello into lifting his rifle as the blond turned at the same time.

The little thing was there, no more than two foot away. It had been watching from the inside of the barrier, barely visible in the blackness of the miasma.

Tsuna's stomach twisted violently, the pain doubling again, more intense.

"Oh," Colonello said, relieved. "Just a Midge. Silly little thing to get frightened of, kora. Shoo." He waved his weapon at it.

It continued to stare at Tsuna, unblinking and then after a long, tense moment, it turned away, disappearing into the miasma.

Almost on automatic, Tsuna couldn't stop himself as he barrelled forward, passing over the barrier with little difficulty and making Colonello flinch away from him at the sudden and explosive movement.

"Sawada!" Reborn barked, hand moving to his pistol as he stepped closer.

Tsuna was too focused on trying to keep the small glimmer that was the creature's eyes in sight, his eyes downcast towards the forest floor, and so it was a surprise when he slammed into something solid.

Glancing up in shock, he had to tilt his head to make eye contact with the monster he'd crashed into, something that was very thin and very tall.

As if in slow motion, it lifted an arm.

Two seconds later, Tsuna's feet left the floor as he was lifted up, blood gurgling past his lips and Colonello shouting in anger and horror as the small brunet was speared on the sharp tip that was the creature's arm.

Tiny eyes glittered in the distance.

* * *

So! I've had a few questions regarding the ranking system in this AU.

The **HIGHER** the number, the **WEAKER** the Fiend/Equipment.

The **lower** the number, the **stronger** the Fiend/Equipment.

Ten = Weakest

One = Strongest

**WEAKEST **Decimo - Nono - Ottavo - Settimo - Sesto - Quinto - Quarto - Terzo - Secondo - Primo **STRONGEST**

Anything else that doesn't fall into this category is either ridiculously strong and should be avoided at all costs, or weak enough not to tip the scale.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Much thanks to **weisskreuz** for betaing this one!


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